Here’s a dish that I used to make for our guests aboard the antique power yacht Westward while we motored around SE Alaska. We were lucky to have a floating dining room with an ever-changing view of jaw dropping beauty. These little fritters come off the pan with an uncommon delicate airiness and went great with our afternoon cocktails. We would often collect ice that had broken off of the glaciers and use them in our cocktails. Listening to the shards of ice crackle and hiss in the glass, we would surmise that they were releasing air that had been trapped during the same ice age that had eradicated the dinosaurs. Aged ice from the Ice Age sure made for a tasty beverage!
4 ounces smoked salmon – broken into small pieces 2 tablespoons minced flat leaf parsley 1 cup of baby arugula, shredded 3/4 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese 2 large eggs 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour Olive oil, for frying Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper
Beat the eggs and stir in the Ricotta cheese. Add the parsley, arugula, lemon zest, Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper. Fold in the smoked salmon and the flour until just mixed.
Heat a pan over moderately high heat and add oil for frying. When the oil is hot, add 2 tablespoon mounds to the pan and spread them with the back of the spoon until they are about 2.5 inches wide. Let it brown on one side and then flip and brown on the other side. (approximately 3 minutes per side)
Serve this with some sour cream and salmon eggs or finely sliced scallions.
You can hold these in a 325 degree F oven for a couple of hours if you don’t eat them immediately.