Smoked Salmon and Caviar Appetizer Platter with Avocado: Quick, Easy and Delicious

We love an appetizer platter here at Glover Gardens, and this one with cold-smoked salmon and caviar was elegant, quick to assemble and delicious. The addition of avocado and piquant relish items adds a flavorful dimension that results in a dish that’s great for a party or a brunch, or even dinner for two. Check out the recipe below.

Smoked Salmon and Caviar Appetizer Platter with Avocado

Serves 4 as an appetizer; comes together in less than a half hour

Ingredients

• 4-6 ounces smoked salmon (cold- or hot-smoked)
• 1-2 ounces caviar
• 2 eggs, hard-boiled and finely chopped
• 1/3 cup red onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp capers
• Relish items: a mix of grape tomatoes in various colors, kalamata (or other) olives, sliced cucumbers, cocktail onions, sliced peppers
• 1/4 cream cheese or sour cream
• 1/4 cup avocado spread, mashed avocado or other dip / spread of your liking
• Sprigs of dill and other fresh herbs or dried herbs for garnish
• Fresh ground pepper (optional)
• A selection of crackers, such as water crackers and ‘everything’ crackers

Instructions

Center the caviar in its original jar or a small dish in the middle of a platter and put the crackers at one end. Put the cream cheese or sour cream and the other dip or spread (if using) in small ramekins next to the crackers. Mound the onion, parsley, capers, eggs and salmon at the other end of the platter, then arrange the relish items around the caviar to fill in the gaps. Garnish with dill and other herbs and serve.

Notes

The Caviar and Smoked Salmon

Depending on the caviar and smoked salmon you choose, this appetizer can be inexpensive, or a luxurious guilty pleasure. Our cold-smoked salmon for this dish was from the grocery store, but was one of the higher-end imported choices, and the caviar was also from the grocery store, which will never be top-quality (but hey, I was in the mood for caviar and the grocery store was close). Hot-smoked salmon like the version The Grill-Meister makes is also really good; the recipe is below.

Tom’s Smoked Salmon

The Avocado Options

While sour cream or cream cheese (or a mix of both) is the traditional creamy condiment for smoked salmon and caviar, avocado is also a beautiful pairing. You can simply mash half an avocado and add some salt, use guacamole or a spicy avocado dip, or make my Avocado-Dill Spread.

Avocado-Dill Spread, a Multi-Purpose Condiment

The Beverage Pairing

The appetizer platter pairs well with champagne – of course! – or mimosas, particularly if you’re serving it for brunch. I’m partial to a pineapple mimosa for this dish because the sweetness balances the saltiness of the caviar. For a non-alcoholic choice, club soda or sparkling water with a few drops of bitters would be good, or a mock-mimosa. And while I haven’t tried it, I actually think a sweet soda like Dr. Pepper would pair well with caviar. What do you think?

The Backstory

There’s always a backstory, right? I was in test kitchen mode on a Saturday last fall and made up a savory crepe with smoked salmon and avocado, using some of the traditional smoked salmon accompaniments to garnish the crepes, adding arugula, avocado and thinly sliced cucumber.

The crepes were really good but not quite ready for prime time yet. They were creamy and rich, but I think the dish needs a sauce, a little more crunch and some acidity. That’s ok, that’s what playtime in the test kitchen is for. I’ll share the recipe here once I’ve perfected it.

The next day, a Sunday, I made a 5-hour round trip trek to Austin to have brunch with my son and a friend while he was there on fall break (he’s getting an advanced degree in music in Miami). I got to the restaurant quite a bit early and ordered a mimosa, which was so pretty that I took a picture of it.

The one on the left below is still silly – what in the heck are those fluffy orange things, pompoms? And look how ridiculously tall that glass is. But I rather like the one on the right; it feels like a lovely summer afternoon on the Riviera. I haven’t done anything with it yet, and might not ever, but it was a fun way to spend a few minutes while I was waiting.

The lunch was great and well worth the drive. It’s always sooooo wonderful to hang out with our young people, learn about what they’re doing, exchange ideas and talk about art, books, music and food, all of which we did. I showed them the results of my AI play and we talked about that, too.

I wasn’t going to be doing any cooking-cooking that night, since I spent a big part of the day on the road, so while I was driving, I thought about what I could throw together for The Grill-Meister and me. A smoked salmon platter using the extra salmon from the night before and the excess garnishes was an easy choice, but I had caviar on my mind, so I zipped into the grocery store on the way home and picked up a jar.

The resulting platter was quick and easy, relatively inexpensive, attractive without being fussy, and somehow quite special, which is why I had to share it with you, Dear Readers.

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