Smoked Salmon Toasts with Lemon Cream
Dark rye toast with a thick layer of pale lemon cream, waves of orange smoked salmon, a few capers, a curl of red onion, and dill on top is the plate on every brunch-menu photo. Nothing is cooked except the toast. You spread, you layer, you scatter. It is a sandwich you did not close, which is what "open-faced" means, which is what restaurants charge $18 for.
- Cost for two
- $25
- Active time
- 15 min
- Done ahead
- 81%
- 1 hr 50 min before 7:30
- Hands off at
- 7:20
- T-10
Allergens: Fish (salmon) · Milk (cream cheese) · Wheat (rye and pumpernickel loaves are almost always part wheat flour; check the label)·Serves: 2 (3 toasts each)·Oven: None (a toaster, or 400°F for 6 min)
Gear: A toaster (fallback: the sheet tray in a 400°F oven, 6 minutes), a small mixing bowl, a fork, a grater (small holes; fallback is a vegetable peeler and a knife), a small bowl of cold water for the onion, a board or two small plates, a phone timer.
Start at 5:30. Hands off from 7:20. Stove mode follows the clock while you cook.
The 7:30 Timeline
Read it bottom-up if you like; cook it top-down.
Done before she arrives
Aisle order
Shopping list
Produce
Lemon
1
Fresh dill
produce, with the herbs
1 bunch
Small red onion
you use a quarter
1
Meat & Seafood
Smoked salmon
4 oz; the flat cold-smoked slices, refrigerated case near the seafood counter
1 package
Dairy & Cheese
Cream cheese
8 oz; you use about 6 oz
1 block
Bakery
Dark rye or pumpernickel
sliced; cocktail rye, the small square loaf, is a good sub and already the right size
1 loaf
Pantry & Canned
Capers
1 small jar
Pantry (you probably have these)
Salt, pepper, olive oil
At the stove
Method
- 1
Take the cream cheese out of the fridge at 5:30. Cold cream cheese tears toast; soft cream cheese spreads like frosting.
- 2
Zest the lemon into a small bowl on the small holes of the grater. Stop at the white. Cut the lemon in half.
- 3
Unwrap the cream cheese into the bowl with the zest. Squeeze in about 1 tablespoon of lemon juice through your fingers so the seeds stay in your hand. Add a pinch of salt and 10 grinds of pepper.
- 4
Mash with a fork for about a minute, pressing against the side of the bowl, until it is smooth and looks like thick frosting.
- 5
Snip about 1 tablespoon of the feathery dill tops into the bowl with scissors. Stir. Cover and refrigerate.
- 6
Peel the onion, cut a quarter off it, and slice that quarter as thin as you can. Put the slices in a small bowl of cold water for 10 minutes; this takes the harsh bite out, and it is why restaurant onion tastes mild.
- 7
Spoon 2 tablespoons of capers onto a paper towel to drain.
- 8
Pick a small handful of dill fronds onto a saucer. Lift the onion out of the water, pat it dry, and add it to the saucer. Cover and refrigerate.
- 9
At 7:00, take the lemon cream out of the fridge. Cut 6 pieces of bread to about the size of your palm; halve big slices.
- 10
At 7:05, toast the bread until it is firm and darker at the edges: a toaster on medium, or the sheet tray on the middle rack of a 400°F oven with a 6-minute timer. Cool on the board for 5 minutes so the cream does not melt.
- 11
At 7:15, spread each toast thickly with the lemon cream, right to the edges, using the back of a spoon.
- 12
Lay 1 or 2 slices of salmon on each toast, folding each slice back on itself once or twice so it sits in soft waves with height rather than flat.
- 13
Cover the toasts loosely with an upturned bowl or a tent of foil and leave them on the counter until 7:45.
- 14
At 7:45, uncover. Scatter the onion curls, the capers, and the dill over the salmon. Squeeze the lemon half over everything, grind pepper over, and drizzle a thin thread of olive oil across.
- 15
Carry them out on the board or on two small plates.
Is it done?
The check that needs no experience
Thermometer: nothing here is cooked. Cold-smoked salmon is cured and eaten as it comes from the package; check the use-by date and keep it in the fridge until 7:15. No thermometer: the toast is ready when it is stiff enough to hold flat by one corner without bending. The salmon should be bright orange-pink, glossy, and smell clean and faintly smoky; if it is dull, sticky, or smells sharp, do not use it.
The #1 way to screw it up
The cream cheese was still cold and stiff at 7:15, and spreading it tore the toast into pieces.
Recovery
Stop spreading. Microwave the cream in the bowl for 10 seconds and stir. Then change the format: put the bowl of lemon cream in the middle of a board, arrange the toasts (and their torn halves) around it, fold the salmon into waves on the board, and scatter the onion, capers, and dill over the salmon. Hand her a knife. A build-your-own board is a real menu item and a better way to eat this with a drink in your other hand.
- The onion is harsh enough to make your eyes water
- you skipped the water soak. Use half as much, or leave it off and add extra capers.
- The capers taste like a salt lick
- some brands are packed in salt rather than brine. Rinse them under the tap for 10 seconds and pat dry.
The reveal
Plating
Set three toasts on each small plate in a loose triangle, or all six on a wooden board in two rows, with the salmon folded into waves so each toast has height. Scatter the onion curls, capers, and dill over the salmon last, unevenly, so it looks placed rather than measured. Squeeze the lemon over at the table, grind pepper across, and drizzle one thin thread of olive oil over the board rather than on each toast.
Vegetarian swap
Roasted beet toasts: one vacuum pack of pre-cooked beets (Love Beets or the store brand, produce section), sliced as thin as you can and laid over the same lemon cream in the same overlapping waves, with the same onion, capers, dill, lemon, and oil. Same timeline, same board. Dark red on white on dark rye photographs better than the salmon version, honestly.
What to pour
- Wine
- Prosecco or a cold Sauvignon Blanc — La Marca Prosecco, about $15, or Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc, about $12.
- Beer
- a crisp pilsner — Pilsner Urquell.
- No alcohol
- tonic water over ice with a lemon wedge and a dill sprig dropped in.
Take this to the supermarket.
The First Bulletproof Dinner as a PDF, with the timelines. Free.