Salmon Bites Recipe

These little salmon bites are a great hot finger food for a party. They have a creamy salmon filling and a crisp, buttery bread case. The salmon filling could also be used to fill vol-au-vent cases.

The cases can be made the day before serving and stored in an airtight container until required. The flavoured white sauce can also be made the day before serving. Store the sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator and stir in the salmon just before filling the cases.

Makes about 24 bite-sized hors d'oeuvres.

Bread Cases
About 12 slices sandwich-slice white bread (use a fairly wide/tall loaf so that you are able to cut 2 rounds from each slice; otherwise you'll need about 24 slices of bread)
About 50g butter, melted

Salmon Filling
210g can salmon, drained
25g butter
1 1/2 tablespoons (18g) plain flour
188ml (3/4 cup) milk
3 green onions (green shallots), finely chopped
Salt and pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground paprika
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon (5ml) lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley (firmly packed)
Extra parsley, for decoration

Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius (170 degrees Celsius fan-forced).

Cut rounds from bread using a 6cm diameter round cutter. (The bread offcuts could be used to make breadcrumbs.)

Flatten the bread rounds slightly by rolling over them with the side of a glass or a rolling pin.

Brush both sides of each bread round with melted butter.

Ease the rounds into the holes of a mini muffin pan (1 tablespoon capacity holes). Ensure that the bread is pressed against the base of the pan as this helps the case brown on the bottom.

Bake cases until crisp, about 12-15 minutes.

Remove skin and bones from the salmon and break it into small chunks.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir in flour and cook, stirring, until the mixture bubbles. Remove saucepan from heat.

Add about one third of the milk. Stir until mixture is well combined and as smooth a possible. Stir in remaining milk. Return saucepan to medium or medium-high heat and stir continuously until mixture bubbles and thickens. Remove from heat. If something has gone wrong and your white sauce is lumpy at this stage, you could pass it through a fine sieve.

Add green onions, salt, pepper, paprika, mustard, lemon juice and parsley to white sauce.

Stir until well combined. Add the salmon and mix gently.

Fill the cooked bread cases with the salmon mixture (about one heaped teaspoon of mixture per case).

Bake at 190 degrees Celsius (170 degrees Celsius fan-forced) for about 7-10 minutes, or until hot. Top with parsley sprigs and serve immediately. © www.exclusivelyfood.com.au