Smoked Salmon, Wasabi and Radish Finger Sandwiches

Well yes, for sure, I know this is a wee bit late or a wee bit early, but here we have a recipe from Donna Hay's cookbook Christmas, for your delectation.  I love a bit of smoked salmon any time of year, don't you?  I made this for Cookbook Club in December 2023, can you believe?  And honestly, the way this year is flying by, it WILL be Christmas before I can blink.

I know I've mentioned before checking out the salmon run in Pitlochry in Scotland; we've also been to the Salmon Ponds in Tasmania.  They have salmon and trout in the ponds, and you can throw in some fish food, or check out the museum.  Or walk through the Gardens and enjoy the heritage trees.  Oops, I sound like an ad, but truly it's worth a trip to any part of Tasmania at any time of year.

Anyways, let's enjoy some fishy fingers!  Reminds me of Dr. Who.  Remember the first episode with Matt Smith?  He was voraciously eating weird foods, and then he tried (and loved) fish fingers and custard.  Mm, maybe not for me ...  Though you never know - a salty morsel with some sweet custard could be a thing :=)  

creamy, fishy, herby - what's not to like?

Makes 12 fingers:

ingredients:

225g./8 oz cream cheese, at room temp.

2 tsp wasabi paste

2-3 tsp lime zest

2 tsp lime juice  (my optional extra)

8 thick slices of white bread (or bread of your choice)

4 small radishes, thinly sliced

200g./7 oz smoked salmon   (Donna says to use 250g. but she didn't add the boiled egg mash-up)

2 large eggs, hard-boiled and mashed, with salt, pepper and mayo

your choice of herbs, to be strewn on top of the fingers - Donna says to use miso leaves but you can add chives or parsley or whatever ...

Freshly-cracked black pepper, to serve

Method:

Throw the cream cheese, (well, gently) wasabi, lime zest and juice into a small bowl and combine well with a fork or whisk

Lay out your bread onto a board or bench, then spread two thirds of the cream cheese mixture over the 8 slices of bread

The radish slices go over 4 slices of the bread, and then you place the other 4 (un-radished) bread slices over the tops, cream cheese-side down (so, resting on the radish), so now you have 4 lovely sandwiches!

So spread the other third of the cream cheese over the top of the 4 sandwiches, and then spread over the mashed egg mixture

On go the smoked salmon slices over the eggy, mayo mixture - beautiful!

Trim the crusts of your sandwiches, and then cut each into three fingers (the bread, not your own)

On go the herbs and the pepper!

Serve daintily on a pretty platter

Notes:

Donna gives slightly larger quantities of the cream cheese, radish and salmon, but I decided to add the boiled egg mixture to these fingers, to give some Swedish smörgastarta vibes

Use lemon zest and juice if you prefer

gather your ingredients

combine the cream cheese mixture

spread the egg mixture over the cream-cheesed slices of bread

and slap on the fish!

the Grinch was eyeing these off :=)

Oops, nearly forgot to mention the verdict for the Mushroom Killer trial - she was found guilty on three counts of murder, and one of attempted murder!  I feel sorry for her kids, and the fellow who survived but without his wife, sister and brother-in-law.  Very sad.

so tasty, so fishy :=)

zest and juice your lime

radish

you guessed it!

Potato Balls Ragout

Who doesn't love anything potato?  I've mentioned in previous posts that you can find over 4000 different varieties of potato in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.  Sounds brilliant to me.  Remember the purple potato craze some years ago?  Purple chips or mash?  Sure, why not? :=)  

This recipe is from A Distant Feast by Kiwi writer/historian Tony Simpson.  He tells us about the origins of New Zealand's cuisine, and provides lots of recipes including this one from Dr William Kitchener's The Cook's Oracle (1817).  Apparently, this was a best-seller back in the day!

yep, we ate these with sausage and salsa :)

Makes around 2 dozen:

ingredients:

900g./2 lb potatoes, boiled and well-mashed  see Notes

30g./2 Tbs butter   see Notes

1 cup/145g. ham + 1 mushroom or 1 cup mushrooms, finely chopped

1 large brown or red onion, finely chopped

2 large egg yolks

1/2 tsp sea salt flakes

1 dozen grinds black pepper

1/4-1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 

panko breadcrumbs (tho' the recipe says to use brown)

clarified butter, or a mix of oil and butter to fry - I started off with 3 Tbs olive oil and 3 Tbs butter, but used a fair bit more butter and oil as I went along

Method:

Well, cook up your spuds and mash 'em first off

Put all the ingredients except the breadcrumbs into a large bowl, and combine well

Roll this mixture into small balls and chuck 'em into your bowl or shallow tray of breadcrumbs, to coat 

Heat up your frying medium of butter and oil, and fry away till golden-brown, turning once - I gave them 5 minutes on each side

That's it for Dr Kitchener's instructions!  He says this dish is "an agreeable vegetable relish, to be served with meat."

So serve with a protein, or a salad, or whatever you fancy

Notes:

You need tender, well-done potatoes - so you boil them, or microwave or steam them till soft - then mash 'em with gusto

NZ tablespoons were/are the same as U.S. and U.K. spoons so 15g. per tablespoon

Obvs. if you are a vego., go with the mushrooms rather than ham 

(Just FYI, the mushroom killer's trial has ended, and they are weighing up the evidence before we get a verdict.)

ingredients gathered

mashed!

chop that onion

get ready to mix, and shape into balls

covered in panko, and ready to fry off

and get Mr P. to fry 'em

and turn 'em till golden

served with sausage and salsa :=)

It's a wee bit hilarious that Dr Kitchener calls this a ragout, isn't it?  When clearly they are potato fritters.  Goodness knows what he was thinking, trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.  But they were fun to make, and pretty tasty.  Well, fry anything in butter and oil and you're set.  Deep-fried Mars bar anyone?

Rainbow Bob guarding his fritters

potatoes

baby potato says "Please don't eat me!"

brown onion

mushies

In My Kitchen - July 2025

Halfway through the year?  Pas possible!!  And moi - another year older.  Surely not possible? :=)  'Twas my birthday so time to head off for a birthday break.  So Mr P. and I headed 3 hours west to the Granite Belt.  I remember staying there one night a few years ago when it was minus 11C!  I have never been so cold - but it was brilliant.  This time it was fairly warm - around 6C at night.

Long-time readers may remember that hubby's first encounter with snow was in Central Park, New York.  Something you could never forget; and so very different to our sub-tropical lifestyle here in sunny Queensland.  Reminds me of taking our dear friends' teenagers to the snow on top of Mt. Wellington in Hobart, Tasmania a few years ago.  One's first sight of snow ...   

mum kangaroo and her joey outside our holiday cabin

In My Kitchen:

the olive oil harvest was early this year!

a few goodies from our local providore Mumbleberry

another cookbook!!

So many recipes I want to make from this one!

annual winter goodies from COCO88!

hazelnut oil from Tasmania

and a few more goodies from Mumbleberry

and a couple of chicken mugs that I bought on our break

I decanted the sauerkraut after our break - it had fermented for 3 weeks!

I bought this gorgeous tea-towel (by Kate Piekutowski Artist)

Princess Pia gave me some organic lemons from her dad's tree

the curveball - Dead Cute (the ghost bunny) by our mate Dion @holyshititsdion

c. Sherry M.

Be a part of our friendly IMK community by adding your post here too - everybody welcome!  We'd love to have you visit.  Tell us about your kitchen (and kitchen garden) happenings over the past month.  Dishes you've cooked, preserves you've made, herbs and veg. in your garden, kitchen gadgets, and goings-on.  And one curveball is welcome - whatever you fancy; no need to be kitchen-related.  

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Raspberry and white chocolate cornflake cookies

This is my birthday post!  Finally, we get to my actual birthday, and Mr P. and I are away in freezing cold Granite Belt country.  Yay!  Hopefully it will snow.  I know I've said it before, but people just do not believe it sometimes snows in sunny Queensland.  Even Queenslanders tend not to believe it, but I assure you it does.

Admittedly it's on the border country with New South Wales (you should see the funny contours of the border), but boy does it get cold.  Officially the coldest town in Queensland!  Long-time readers will remember my story of getting lost here, and planning how we would keep warm overnight when it snowed on our (almost) petrol-less car!  Thank heavens we made it to Tenterfield (in NSW) where we found a petrol station!

so delicious - crispy, fruity and chocolatey

(Recipe from Some of my best friends are Cookies by Emelia Jackson - she of Masterchef Australia fame.  Soooo many recipes I want to make from this book!)

Makes 12 (or 13):

ingredients:

220g./8 oz plain flour

1/2 tsp bi-carb (baking) soda

1/2 tsp baking powder 

1/4 tsp sea salt flakes

150g./5.5 oz butter, softened (not melted)  Emelia says to use unsalted, but no!  that's the devil's work :=)

125g./4.5 oz brown sugar

100g./3.5 oz caster sugar

1 large egg, at room temp.

2 tsp vanilla bean paste  (or extract if you don't have the paste)

40g./1.5 oz shredded coconut

25g./1 oz cornflakes

125g./4.5 oz fresh raspberries

255g./9 oz white chocolate chips

15g./0.5 oz freeze-dried raspberries  (optional - as if!)  see Notes

bi-carb (aka baking) soda

Method:

Heat your oven to 180C/355F fan forced

Grab 2 baking trays and line 'em with baking paper

Into a medium bowl, tip the flour, bi-carb, baking powder and salt

Give them a good stir and a thorough whisking

Now get hold of your electric handbeaters (or a mixer with the paddle attachment, says Emelia), and cream the butter and sugars together till fluffy

Then add the egg and vanilla paste, and give it another good whizz

Add the flour mixture, and combine firmly but gently - you know what I mean? :=)

In go the coconut, cornflakes, raspberries and 180g./6 oz of the white chocolate drops, and fold them in; not too roughly

Weigh out 75g./2.5 oz blobs of the mixture  (Emelia says 12, but I got 13, so I ended up making my 12 blobs a bit bigger)

No need to shape them I found, just drop them onto the trays, leaving lots of room for each one, as they spread themselves out like a sunbather on a lounge chair

Bake for 20-22 minutes, till golden around the edges, and still soft and blonde towards the centre (says Emelia)

Take them out, and gently press the other 75g./2.7 oz of white chocolate drops into the tops of the biscuits/cookies

Then crumble the freeze-dried fruit (use whatever berry you fancy) over the tops

Cool completely on the trays, and hide from hungry husbands if you want to have some around for a bit

Will keep for a few days in an airtight container  (hahaha - as if)

Notes:

I could only get freeze-dried strawberries, and they worked out fine!  Tho' I did have to throw them into my mini food-processor for a bit, as they were jolly hard; too hard to crumble by hand

gather those ingredients

and beat that butter with the sugars

looking creamy

now mix in the other ingredients

plop 'em (75g. each remember) onto your lined trays

these took 21 minutes

press in the choc drops, and crumble over the berry bits

and let 'em cool right down

oh yes, get ready to be devoured little (actually big) biscuits!

white chocolate - but you know it's not really chocolate :=)

raspberries!