Smoked Salmon with Cucumber and Avocado
At this time of year there is a lot of smoked salmon about. In my family smoked salmon was always the appetizer at Christmas served on thinly sliced brown bread. The bread was sliced thinly from a whole loaf of bread and the butter to spread on it had to be softened otherwise the bread would tear. Then there was the slicing of the salmon (before the days of pre-sliced) with my father gallantly doing his best to slice it as thinly as my mother wanted. This was after the sourcing of the smoked salmon from somewhere in Scotland about which there was much debate. In the USA salmon accompanies bagels along with chopped hard-boiled eggs, onion, capers, cream cheese. So, if you have some spare salmon hanging about this is an alternative use – so easy, quick and nice to look at (as well as to eat!). Can be an appetizer or lunch or just a salad. Could be good in a lunch box too (lemon vinaigrette will keep avocado from going brown).
4 oz smoked salmon – cut into strips
1/2 an English cucumber – sliced
1 avocado – diced
Lemon vinaigrette (juice of half a lemon and 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil)
I arranged the slices of cucumber around the edge of a plate, then I put the strips of salmon in a circle inside the cucumber. I put the diced avocado in the center and drizzled lemon vinaigrette over the plate.
** Little Known Food Fact**
I remember being totally surprised when a woman in my local supermarket told me how hard it was to find hot dogs which didn’t have sugar in them. Many years on I am now horrified how much sugar there is in products and the ingredients are not always labelled sugar. Other names for sugar include ingredients with the word syrup after it, such as rice syrup; fruit juice concentrate; ingredients ending in the letters ‘ose – dextrose, fructose, glucose, maltrose, sucrose, saccharose, xylose; also dextrin, maltodextrin, sorghum. There are probably more. You almost need a good working knowledge of latin to know these are sugar!