Smoked Salmon Roulade with Cream Cheese and Avocado Cream

Versión en español

The recipe Smoked Salmon Roulade with Cream Cheese and Avocado Cream is sponsored by America’s Dairy Farm Families and Importers, in collaboration with the Innovation Center for U.S.Dairy. All opinions are mine.The holidays and end-of-year dinners are coming soon, and one thing I learned from my mother is that you need to plan and decide on a menu that allows you to make some things in advance. This starter or appetizer Smoked Salmon Roulade with Cream Cheese and Avocado Cream is tasty, easy to make, unique, and is served cold.

In my family traditionally for Christmas and New Years Eve, the first course was always fish or seafood, and the main dish would be turkey or pork. Some years it was shrimp, prawns, and other smoked salmon. I love all these flavors.The stuffing with cream cheese and vegetables is tasty and has a beautiful color. You can use different vegetables and give it a personal touch. For the sauce, I used plain yogurt, which combined with the cucumber and avocado make for a very fresh and tasty sauce. I never stop being amazed by how flexible dairy products are. The avocado and cucumber sauce is also perfect for salad dressing or dipping sauce.

Since coming back from my visit to the WildCat dairy farm in central Texas, I have a deeper appreciation for the families that own and manage dairy farms in the USA, the great sense of responsibility and pride for what they do. It was terrific for me to see how they continuously innovate to create a better future for our children and grandchildren.

Dairy farmers are committed to caring for our environment, water management (including recycling several times, 3-5 times on average), waste and land management, they are a sustainable industry. With the technology and management improvements currently adopted to produce 1-gallon milk: 90% less land is used, 65% less water, and the carbon footprint has reduced by 63% compared to 1944. An outstanding and never-ending effort on their part.

Back to the end-of-year celebrations, other tips to help to have stress-free dinners include:

When planning the menu, immediately decide what kind of plates you will use and whether it would be reasonable to serve the starter or dessert on disposable plates. Same goes for the cutlery. I do not recommend washing dishes in between, although this often happened at my grandparents (another era).

Set the table the day before. Make flower arrangements or centerpieces in advance. Prepare trays with glasses for the toast. Arrange plates for snacks. Lay napkins.

Serve cake for dessert; it’s best if it’s been allowed to rest overnight and always impressive. Or pie. With a plate of fruit, there are dessert options for everyone.

You may also be interested in the recipe: Milk-braised Pork Loin.

Smoked Salmon Roulade with Cream Cheese and Avocado Cream

Serves 10
Ingredients:

for the salmon roulade,

• 2 packages (8 ounces) cream cheese, soft
• 1 pepper, red, yellow or orange, washed and seeded
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 8 green onions, white part and little of the green
• 16 ounces (450 grams) smoked salmon
• salt, pepper

for the sauce,

• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 cucumber
• 1 avocado
• juice of one lemon
• salt, pepper

Preparation:

1. Prepare the vegetable cream cheese. You can use the food processor or chop finely and mix by hand. If you are using the food processor, grate the carrot first, then add green onions, then pepper and finally cream cheese. Add salt and pepper, combine well and adjust seasoning.
2. On the counter place two overlapping sheets of plastic wrap, make a rectangle of 30×20 cm with smoked salmon. Place a thin layer of veggie cream cheese. Carefully roll, use the plastic wrap to help yourself. Wrap well and freeze for 4 hours or overnight. Take out of the freezer 30 minutes before slicing
3. Prepare the sauce, combine all ingredients in the blender and process until you obtain a sauce. Adjust seasoning. Refrigerate. Can be made the day before and keep refrigerated.
4. Cut medallions of 1 cm. thickness.
5. To plate, pour some sauce and a salmon medallion on top. Garnish with chopped parsley or chives. Serve cold.

This post is created with America’s Dairy Farm Families and Importers, in partnership with the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy. However, the views and opinions included are my own.