00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Candied Salmon Dip.
00:08That's right, this incredible new party dip was inspired by the recent Candied Salmon craze.
00:14And whether you're rooting for that city in the great Northwest, known for its incredible salmon or not,
00:19this would be perfect for your game day spread.
00:23And to get started, let's meet the star of the show, which would be 8 ounces of hot smoked salmon.
00:28No, not cold smoked. That is the stuff we put on bagels.
00:33And that's not really going to work here.
00:35And as you can see, this one's coated with some black pepper, which is very common.
00:39But pretty much any hot smoked salmon will work.
00:42And what we're going to want to do is break this up and peel it off the skin.
00:47And we'll simply crumble that into a bowl.
00:50And we can do that in pretty big pieces at this point,
00:52since this is all going to get broken up when we mix in the rest of the ingredients.
00:56And this is supposed to be boneless.
00:58But sometimes they miss one or two.
01:00So pay attention while you do this.
01:02And fair warning, the hardest part about this step is not eating half the salmon while you do it.
01:08So maybe buy an extra piece.
01:10But please be careful.
01:11And then once that's been accomplished,
01:13we can move on to make the syrup that's going to turn our hot smoked salmon
01:16into simulated candied salmon.
01:19And that starts with some brown sugar,
01:22to which we will add a little bit of maple syrup.
01:25And once those are in, believe it or not, we're going to add a tablespoon of ketchup,
01:29which is also going to add a little bit of sweetness.
01:32And it will also help give us that classic candied salmon color.
01:35And then we'll also add a couple tablespoons of vinegar
01:37before we spice this up with a generous squeeze of shirazza.
01:42Plus, last but not least, way more than a few shakes of cayenne.
01:46And yes, I'm making mine pretty spicy.
01:49And if you want to add less, feel free.
01:52I mean, you guys are after all the Seattle Seahawks of making sure this dip rocks.
01:57But in any event, we'll place that on the stove.
02:00And we'll turn on the heat and adjust that to about medium.
02:03And we'll wait for that to start to simmer.
02:06And once it does, we'll give it a good stir.
02:09And once everything's been combined and it's boiling like this,
02:13we will let that cook for a couple minutes
02:15or until it reduces down and thickens up.
02:18Right, not super thick, but something that looks just about like this.
02:23And once we get to that point, we'll simply turn off the heat
02:26and we'll let that sit and cool for a few minutes
02:28while we move on to make our dip space,
02:31which like so many other party dips starts with cream cheese,
02:35which of course is famously delicious with smoked salmon.
02:38As are the rest of these ingredients,
02:40including a whole bunch of freshly chopped dill,
02:43some drained and roughly chopped capers,
02:45as well as some finely and freshly sliced green onions.
02:50And then we'll finish up with one lemon's worth of freshly grated zest.
02:54And if you're sort of new to cooking,
02:56we use lemon zest when we want lemon flavor,
02:59but we don't want the extra liquid and acidity of the juice.
03:03And once we have that grated in,
03:05we'll grab a spatula and we'll give this a thorough mix,
03:09which really is fast and easy.
03:11If you remember to take your cheese out of the fridge in its room temp,
03:15which I almost never do.
03:17But anyway, eventually I got that mixed.
03:19And once we do,
03:20we'll transfer everything into a shallow casserole dish
03:23and we'll clean off our spatula with a spoon.
03:26And then we'll use that spoon to spread this out as evenly as we can.
03:30And ideally, we want to choose a baking dish
03:32where once we have our cream cheese in
03:34and we've topped it with our salmon,
03:36our ingredients are coming up pretty much to the top,
03:39since that's going to give us the best looking final appearance.
03:42But anyway, once our dip base is done,
03:44we will grab our freshly made syrup off the stove
03:47and dump it into our salmon.
03:49And we'll take a spoon to give that a thorough mixing.
03:52And as we do this,
03:53those chunks of salmon are being broken up into nice small pieces,
03:57which is exactly why we don't want to crumble it up too small
04:00when we break it up into the bowl.
04:02Otherwise, we might end up with something closer to a paste.
04:05And I don't want a candied salmon paste.
04:08And that's it.
04:09Once mixed,
04:10we can transfer that over the top
04:11and we will spread that out as evenly as possible.
04:15And I said spread.
04:16I didn't say press and smash.
04:19So I want you to be a little bit gentle here.
04:21So we'll mostly just be using the tip of the spoon.
04:24And once we have our salmon evenly distributed,
04:27we have to perform a very important maneuver
04:29before we put this in the oven.
04:32And that would be to place over a piece of plastic wrap.
04:35And we'll press that down very gently with our hands
04:37so that the surface is nice and smooth.
04:40All right, if we don't do that,
04:41all those little tiny pointy pieces of salmon are going to burn
04:45before the rest of the surface is caramelized,
04:47which is just not going to look or taste as good.
04:50And by the way, if you're making this ahead,
04:52just leave that plastic on
04:54and transfer this into the fridge
04:56until you're ready to party.
04:58But I am ready to party.
05:00So we'll go ahead and place this under our broiler,
05:02which I have set on high,
05:04which is my oven's only setting.
05:06And for best results,
05:07I think we want that about seven or eight inches below the heat.
05:10And we'll keep a very close eye on that.
05:13And we'll let that broil until the top is nicely browned
05:16and beautifully caramelized.
05:17And I would have showed you more of these shots.
05:20But unfortunately,
05:22my broiler turns off if I open the oven.
05:24But anyway, like I said,
05:26we'll broil that for a few minutes
05:27or until the top is beautifully browned
05:30and it's almost starting to char in a few spots.
05:33And it hopefully looks like this.
05:36I know that is gorgeous.
05:38And that surface is nice and shiny
05:40and sort of candy-like.
05:42And then as far as service goes,
05:44I don't think this is a great hot dip.
05:46All right, I think it's much better at room temp or cold.
05:49So I think we should let this sit a little bit
05:51before we serve it up.
05:52But once we are ready,
05:54I like to top this with some more sliced green onions,
05:56which is going to make the colors
05:58of that already gorgeous crust pop even more.
06:02And that's it.
06:02Our candied salmon dip is ready to enjoy,
06:06which I think we're going to want to do
06:07next to some kind of cracker.
06:09And for me, I think Fin Crisp are the best,
06:11which is a Finnish sourdough rye cracker
06:14that are pretty easy to find.
06:16And while this would be good
06:17on lots of different things,
06:19this, my friends, is a marriage made in heaven.
06:21And when I say this dip has it all,
06:23I mean that almost literally.
06:25Right?
06:26This is sweet.
06:27It's spicy.
06:27It's savory.
06:28It's salty.
06:29It's smoky, of course.
06:31It's creamy.
06:32It's herbaceous.
06:34And if you are a fan of candied salmon,
06:36there is no way you're not going to absolutely love this.
06:40Oh, and as far as the ratio goes here,
06:42I went with one part salmon to two parts of our cream cheese mixture.
06:46But if you did want something a little meatier,
06:49you could do equal parts.
06:51And if you are wondering exactly how sweet this is,
06:54okay, it's probably less sweet than something like a candied bacon,
06:57and maybe about the same as those cocktail meatballs
06:59that we toss in the grape jelly and the chili sauce.
07:03But if you make this nice and spicy like I did,
07:05I think we end up with something nicely balanced,
07:08not to mention extremely addictive.
07:11Oh, and if you're wondering why I'm serving this with two knives
07:13instead of just the one,
07:15well, go ahead and put this out at your next party,
07:17and you'll have your answer.
07:19After they take the first bite,
07:21people are not going to want to wait to dig back into this.
07:24But no matter how many knives you use,
07:26or whether you're rooting for the team from the Pacific Northwest,
07:30or for that team back east,
07:31who prefer their balls slightly deflated,
07:34I think this is an incredibly delicious,
07:36interesting, and unique party dip,
07:38and I really do hope you give it a try soon.
07:41So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts,
07:45a printable written recipe,
07:46and much more info as usual.
07:48And as always, enjoy!
Comments