find a seafood deli that offers chunks of smoked whitefish. Couple of those, couple lemons and some red onion + fresh herbs, with just enough mayo, and you’ve got whitefish salad.
Ingredients
- 2 chunks smoked whitefish
- 2 lemons
- 1/4 - 1/2 small red onion, rinsed
- 2-3 spoonfuls mayo
- fresh dill / parsley / chives, to taste
- fresh-ground pepper (optional)
- good olive oil (optional)
Steps
- Prep workspace => get a plastic or organic waste bag, cutting board and sharp knife, glass bowl, and strainer. Rubber gloves if you have them
- Prep add-ins => cut the two lemons in half, small dice the red onion and rinse in a strainer2, mince the fresh herbs
- Fish => remove skin gently. To debone1, you can try with a fork, where you gently pull from the middle outwards, along the spine. Or you can give up and use your hands. Move the pieces from the cutting board to the bowl, looking for pin bones as you go. There’s a mix of large and small bones; do a final pass for them in the bowl.
- Lemons => lemon juice makes the flavor absolutely pop. Try the whitefish before and after adding half-lemon juice. Then repeat with another half-lemon juice, to taste. With 2 chunks whitefish, I find 1.5 - 2 lemons worth is the sweet spot, where the flavor is really enhanced, but doesn’t have a dominant lemon taste
- Add the rest and mix => add red onion, fresh herbs, and a spoonful of mayo. Mix with spoon until combined, then see if it needs another spoonful or two of mayo. As a bagel topping, I’d go lighter on the mayo, and not over-mix. As a dip with crackers, I’d add more mayo and/or olive oil, black pepper, maybe cayenne powder or Tabasco, and mix on the smoother side.
Notes
- Quality of fish => if the fish is hard to debone, or dried out and leathery in parts, or smelling fishy, it’s past its prime and the end result won’t be great. Avoid grocery stores that have smoked fish wrapped in plastic and stryofoam; best to get from a deli counter where it’s wrapped in butcher/wax paper. Shoot the shit about where they source it, a good shop will have a strong story here
- Rinsing red onions => dials down their intensity, and keeps the red onion as a background note. Cuts down on bad breath and heartburn too.
