Here’s a thing we know to be true: an appetizer or snack featuring “house-cured” anything is damn impressive. It doesn’t matter that curing can actually be pretty simple. It sounds hard, and that’s all that counts. Now that you’ve mastered your Beet-Cured Salmon and your Whipped Goat Cheese Dip with Preserved Lemon, let’s show them off.
Appetizer
Know what’s more impressive than house-cured? Pretty food that everyone wants to photograph almost as much as they want to eat it. With a few colorful veggies, mild plating abilities, and a steady hand with the mandolin, Instagram glory can too be yours.
We slice cucumbers and radishes thinly with a knife or mandolin and arrange them around a plate. You know, make it pretty. Then add some Rye Cracker Crumble to the center of the plate and scattered on the veggies. Add a dollop of goat cheese dip (or 3 if we’re being realistic) and top with cured salmon and fennel fronds, which are the leafy green things sticking out of a fennel bulb. Damn that’s impressive.
Bite-Sized
If you have a lot of friends (lucky you) it might make more sense to make this into delicious bite-sized little treats. You’re not gonna change up too much here, but you can get creative.
Start with a Rye Cracker, layer on some goat cheese dip, and top with salmon and those green fennel things again. Feeling fancy? Stick a slice of avocado or slice of lotus root on top of the cracker before the other toppings. Feeling lazy? Just try plain old cream cheese on that cracker with the salmon. It’s still going to be 1000% more impressive than whatever your friend Becky brought to the party.
