smoked salmon | Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants)

NEW PRODUCT – “Seasoned Cold Smoked Salmon with Dill Pickle Flavoring”. Trader Joe’s is really fond of dill pickle stuff. Now I just love (fresh) dill and I especially love a sprinkle of fresh dill on top of smoked salmon. I am also crazy about Gravlax (Scandinavian dill cured salmon). However I didn’t love this new smoked salmon, I found it really to be just OK. For one thing I am guessing that they do not use fresh dill but use dried dill (they even list “dill weed oil” as one of the ingredients in this. That means they are trying to emulate the taste of fresh dill). Furthermore the smoked salmon here seemed to me to be a bit tougher (thicker cut?) then other seasoned salmons I really at TJ’s, namely the Everything Smoked Salmon as well as the Pastrami Smoked Salmon, both of which I think work way better than this seasoning. I really like both of those smoked salmon offerings. I wasn’t impressed with this and would not buy it again. The 4 oz. package was $6.49. For me a miss. I give this a “MEH”. My advice would be to just try the other two good seasoned smoked salmon Trader Joe’s offers.

Ingredients: farmed Atlantic Salmon, salt, seasonings (granulated onion, vinegar powder, sugar, granulated garlic), dill weed, citric acid, rice concentrate, safflower oil, dill weed oil, natural hardwood smoke

Trader Joe’s recipe idea: Smoked Salmon on Potato Pancakes

This is hardly a “recipe”, just putting out an idea how sometimes putting two or three TJ products together is an easy way to come up with something good. For New Year’s Eve I had the idea for a “Russian inspired” taste: Smoked Salmon with Potato Pancakes (the pancakes instead of blinis). The combo turned out just as delicious as I hoped and we really enjoyed these as a super easy special holiday meal – however you can make them any old day!

I took a package of Trader Joe’s Latkes / Potato Pancakes and Smoked Salmon and OK instead of sour cream I actually used Greek yogurt to save a few calories. Of course a Russian would use lots of Sour Cream, calories be damned, plus fresh dill. To put the dish together all I had to do to was cook the frozen Potato Pancakes till crispy in an frying pan, then topped them with a good amount of smoked salmon and topped that with a spoon of Greek yogurt. Better with sour cream sure, up to you. Sprinkle some fresh dill on if possible plus a few drops of fresh lemon juice. Voila, it took about 5 minutes until they were ready to serve as a dinner with salad and roasted beets on the side. Easy as pie to “make” and really yummy, so try this if it sounds good to you. You could make this as an appetizer for a few guests in minutes and make a big splash with almost no work except assembling the ingredients. Now I was hardly the only one shopping thinking about Smoked Salmon early afternoon of New Years Eve. Trade Joe’s whole section with smoked salmon was completely sold out except for a few packs of this Nova Salmon! The Nova was a wee bit saltier than some other versions they sell, but as fine with the creamy sour cream / yogurt as it it all balanced out. The next time I make these I will probably opt for the Everything Salmon.

Trader Joe’s (frozen) Potato Pancakes Latkes are $2.69 for 10 little pancakes. I think the Nova was about $9 for 8 oz package.