Michael Friedman's Smoked Wild Salmon Rillettes

This recipe is one of my favorite ways to use wild salmon. Because of it’s lean flesh, the salmon takes very well to smoke. You can smoke it yourself (I find applewood or hickory are friends with this amazing fish) or you can most likely find it presmoked and packaged in a specialty store. Once mixed with the tang of the yogurt and cream cheese, it brings me back to my days working in my local Jewish bakery in New Jersey. You can serve it any way you like, but I enjoy it spread on toast with caviar, some cucumber and chives. Buon appetito!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup Greek strained yogurt
• 4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 8 oz smoked wild salmon filet, bones removed and flaked
• 1 tsp black pepper, ground
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• Kosher salt, to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. In a bowl, whisk the yogurt and the cream cheese together until well incorporated.
2. Flake in the salmon to the yogurt mixture. Add the black pepper, lemon zest and kosher salt (as needed). Fold together with a spatula until well incorporated.
3. Adjust seasonings. Chill for at least one hour.
4. Serve with toast points, cucumbers, salmon roe and chives.