Salmon spread

Just one more time? The last bit of hip hugging dishes? Since this salad is traditional fare on New Years day in our family since oh, I think maybe the seventies. I remember my mom added deviled eggs as a garnish and those are definitely seventies! (You know the filled egg halves on their special plate?) Now I know how old you are...we had a green one.

This easy to assemble, easy-going salad feels at home with all kinds of toast, bread, dark rye, crunches or by itself on a small platter. In a luxurious mood or bigger company you can add all kinds of seafood and crudité to garnish. Don't forget to decorate with swirls of squeezed ketchup from a tube, definitely 70's.

Don't forget to watch the Wiener Philharmoniker performing the New Years concert, and of course the ski jump competition at Garmisch Partenkirchen while your munching on the last oliebollen! Lien from Notitie van Lien shares the same memories, she posted her recipe too ánd in English as well. Our recipes are more or less the same, here's mine:

Body:

- 600 grms potatoes, boiled and crudely mashed with a fork
- 1 small onion, tiny cubes
- 3 pickle spears, cubed
- 500 gr salmon (tinned), picked -bones!-
- half of a large apple (golden delicious/granny smith), small cubes
- quarter cucumber, deseeded, small cubes
- 2 eggs, boiled
- capers (love the salted ones, see above picture)

Sauce:
- approx. 1.1/2 cup of equal amounts mayonnaise and thick yoghurt (or mascarpone/sour cream)
- 2 tbs dill tops
- 1 tbs paprika powder
- 1 ts ground chili flakes
- dash of worcestershire sauce
- 2 tbs sharp mustard
- 2 tbs ketchup
- pepper and salt
maybe you would like to add a little bit of the pickle juice to moisten the spread, it's all up to you.

Assembling is easy, mix the ingredients of the sauce in a bowl (make sure you have a bigger one than the small yellow one I was using, hehe). Then, in a separate bowl you first mix the potatoes with some of the sauce to moisten it, then carefully mix in the rest of the "body" ingredients. You can add more of the sauce along the way, try to get a feel of how moist you like to have the end result.

Almost there, ready to garnish...