Smoked White Fish Spread
This Smoked White Fish Spread is perfect for an appetizer, served on canapés at a dinner party | cocktail party, and topped with some chives and julienne strips of roasted red peppers, or served in a decorative bowl with assorted crackers (even my Homemade Brewers Cracker with Spent Grain ). Think breakfast | brunch, smeared all over a toasted bagel (plain or everything)!
Smoked White Fish is available at many grocery stores, Jewish delicatessens and can be special ordered through your fish monger. If you are a fisherman and wanted to save | preserve some of the catch, making your own homemade smoked fish isn’t that hard either. Regardless of where your fish comes from, this easy to make recipe, requires only a few ingredients. the type of white fish may vary. Sometimes smoked white fish is just that, a small white fish that was smoked, whole, head on, skin on, plain and simple. You might also find smoked sturgeon, halibut or even cod. All these fish will work in this Smoked White Fish Spread. In the below recipe, I breakdown the different types of smoked fish, including non-white smoked fish, such as smoked salmon, and what suggested beer style would be best to use, to highlight the flavor of the smoked fish being used. These are my suggestions with my experience using smoked fish. If you have a special brew and a bit of smoked fish, you bought or caught, experiment. As with any recipe, these are suggestions. Substitute the lemon zest for orange zest, omit the pickles and use capers instead. That is one of the joys of cooking, using what you have on hand, with your flavor profile that you enjoy.
Take this fish spread recipe and technique and use it as a filling for a crêpe, an empanada or serve on top of some in season mixed greens for a wonderful salad.
Makes: 2 Cups of Smoked White Fish Spread
- 8 ounce cream cheese, plain, warmed to room temperature
- 2-3 tablespoon pickles | cornichons | gherkins, minced (depending on type and flavor profile)
- 2 tablespoon parsley, Italian leaf minced
- 1 teaspoon horseradish, prepared or freshly grated on a microplane
- 1/2 teaspoon peppercorns, black freshly cracked
- 1/2 teaspoon zest, lemon, peel grated on a microplane
- 2 - 3 tablespoon beer, depending on fish and beer direction, see below
- 8 ounce white fish, smoked, skin and bones removed
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, add the room temperature cream cheese (making it easier to incorporate the other ingredients, creating a fluffier mousse like consistency), pickles (more or less depending on the type of fish and the strength of the smoke from the cooking process), parsley, horseradish, cracked pepper and lemon zest. Using a paddle attachment (preferably one with a spatula attached to the edges of a paddle blade) and beat the mixture for about 3 minutes, or until light and fluffy in consistency.
- Adding the beer: What beer to use for this recipe? Depending on what beers you have access too, and what type of fish you have as your base flavor to build off of are the key points to consider. Here are two thoughts on beer styles and why:
- A white fish, such as a smoked cod, sturgeon or halibut will enhance the malt characteristics from these these beer styles. They are not as aggressive and will compliment the fish verses overpower it. It is a fish spread, not a beer spread.
- For the fish, try a smoked salmon, as the extra omega 3’s and a beer that is less hop forward. Malt and salmon go much better together than high IBUs styled brews.
