Cream Cheese Salmon Spread

Recipe submitted by Kate Cooper:

Here's my recipe with a few little side comments:

So, you went to the grocery store while your stomach was grumbling. You know what happens then. Whatever you're hungry for you overdo it. Those beautiful slabs of fresh salmon are a case in point. When I walk by the
salmon case I think I could eat them all. Here's what happens after you've had your dinner and there is still a lovely hunk of salmon on the
baking dish.

Salmon Spread!

You can make a yummy spread to slather on whole wheat soda crackers, Triscuits, or whatever cracker you love or, you can roll it up in a beautiful crispy leaf of romaine lettuce (or again whatever lettuce you love the best), or, as sometimes happens here, you can just get out a fork and eat it up!

Here's a pretty simple recipe:

Ingredients:

Leftover Salmon (goes without saying) - whatever is left, you can adjust
the rest of the recipe ingredients accordingly. Just keep an eye on it
quantity-wise. Toss it first into the little food processor that I'm
sure you all have on your counter) so that you know just how to
calculate the rest of the stuff. (Stuff = ingredients, I just got tired
of keying in that long word.)

Cream cheese, use the original one with lots of fat because you need
fat. It tastes good! I used about 4oz. to a 4" slab of salmon.

Green onions, two should do it, 6" of bulb and green part - these are
mostly for the color but they do add taste. They're just pretty and I
like to put them in.

Onion, two slices about 1/4 inch thick of yellow or white, I used yellow
in this one. Not the sweet onion, although that's up to the taste buds
of the eaters.

Celery, one 8in stalk in this recipe. And add a few leaves because they
have so much flavor! It's all going to be ground up anyway. Although you
should save some leaves to top the pretty cracker h'or doureves that
will be the result of your 'hard' work. People will think you've slaved
away with a tweezer!

Radishes - two medium-sized for this recipe but adjust according to the
amount of spread/salmon, this might seem odd but they add crisp and
spark to the taste and brightness to the appearance. I usually figure
out the quantity once I have the other ingredients chopped.

Garlic of course - two cloves to 1/2 cup of spread.

Lemon pepper, pepper, celery salt, tarragon - these are 'to taste' - be
careful and taste as you go. The tarragon can be fresh or dried but
remember that the fresh will be more potent.

Technique:

• If the cream cheese is cold, which it should be if you've kept it in the fridge where it's supposed to be, let it warm to room temp or if you forgot to take it out ahead of time you can nuke it for about 20 seconds. Don't nuke it too long or it will be too runny.

• Chop the onion, green onion, radishes, garlic, celery, and tarragon in your food processor. You want it to come out with a bit of texture not mushy. Be careful with the tarragon. I usually add about 1/8 tsp of dried tarragon at a time but if you're going to have 1 cup of spread you may want to increase the tarragon. If it's fresh you should add whatever comes from a 4" stem once you strip them off.

• Now add the salmon to the food processor. Let it remain a bit 'toothy' - like don't mush it up. You want it to be identifiable in the spread and you don't want the other already processed stuff to be blended into oblivion.

• THEN! The final moment! Dump all the stuff into a large bowl - or one that is larger than you think you need.
  
• Add the cream cheese and begin to mix by hand with a spatula or fork. I use both. Mix it up really well so there are no big blocks of anyone 'stuff' anywhere. While you're mixing add the lemon pepper, pepper, celery salt and be sure to taste as you mix. At this point, you may want to add a bit more tarragon or garlic. If so be sure to smash up the garlic so it mixes well with the already mixed stuff. Same with everything else - if you add more to the already mixed mix you should be sure to process it first so it blends easily by hand as you add.

• The thing with the tasting is this: Depending on how you cooked the salmon in the first place before it became a leftover you will need to adjust to your new spread. So if you have a lovely spicy rub you might use fewer spices in the spread or if you've created a more mild salmon dinner the night before it might require a little spark. It's up to the taste buds of the tasters!

Once it's all said and done, test it on any unsuspecting persons within
the vicinity of the kitchen. If they don't like it, give them a good
smack upside the head. All will be well! Invite the neighbors if you
dare - they will devour it!