For a certain family holiday, we eat Cajun food, Scandinavian food, and chocolate. It can be a difficult mashup to pull off. This year I planned a menu I called "Southern Smorrebrod" or "Smorrebrod and S'more brod," based off of the Danish open faced sandwiches. I got various breads for the bases, including soft white flatbreads from Ikea, crisps from Ikea, and a dense sourdough rye batter bread (the mix was from Ikea, but I baked it!). Then I made protein salads: a "Cajun" chicken salad, pimento cheese, and a Scandinavian-inspired salmon salad. People could then top their open faced sandwiches with sliced hard boiled eggs, red onion, lettuce, tomato, avocado, lettuce, nuts, dill fresh from T's garden-- and probably other delicious stuff I don't remember. I made way too much food, but I do actually think it was a fun meal. T rose to the challenge to make "S'more brod (bread)" to go with the Smorrebrod, and not only was it pretty yummy, but it was a visual pun with the rye bread as well. Maybe someday I will upload the photos we took to prove it.
Anyway, I liked how the menu turned out, but I was surprised to like my salmon salad the best, because I was the most worried about it. I based it roughly on the Swedish salad "Skagen," perhaps named after the port in Denmark? Skagen is made with shrimp, but by swapping in salmon, I think I still maintained a geographically appropriate spirit, at least.
Skagen-esque Salmon Salad
Large fillet of salmon-- mine was about 1 1/2 pounds--
bake it as you see fit; flake.
2 yukon gold potatoes--
I baked alongside the salmon, of course they take longer; peel, cube
cucumber, diced
1 large shallot, chopped
1 - 1 1/2 c cooked peas
capers
Combine. Dress with, as needed:
3 parts sour cream
1 part mayo
a squort of mustard
Season with:
salt
pepper
a whole lot of fresh dill
lemon juice-- you could even grate in some zest, I suppose
