Whitefish Salad

Everyone knows about bagels and lox, but you probably need to be Jewish, or have grown up among Jews, to know about bagels and whitefish salad.

In my imagination, the perfect bagel is hand rolled, boiled, baked, and just out of the oven. It's cut in half and layered with vegetable cream cheese, lox, and whitefish salad. This beautiful creation is then crowned with a slice each of red, ripe tomato and sweet onion.

The bagel is, of course, an everything bagel.

To me, whitefish salad is an essential part of bagel fixings. Smoky, creamy, and altogether delicious, I may like it even more than lox. And I like lox. A lot. You can buy it at any Jewish appetizing counter (the dairy equivalent of a deli counter), but lately I've been making my own, from a whole whitefish from that same appetizing counter. While you could just put chunks of whitefish on your bagel, they have a tendency to fall off. Whitefish salad works better.

The recipe is pretty much standard. I prefer the texture that's achieved by mixing the fish and mayo in a food processor, rather than leaving it chunky.

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds smoked whitefish

• 1/2 cup of good mayonnaise (more or less to taste). You can substitute sour cream for some of the mayo. 3/4 mayo to 1/4 sour cream is a good balance.

• finely zested peel of 1 lemon (I use organic if I'm using the peel.)

• 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 1/2—1 stalk celery, finely chopped (I like to use a vegetable peeler to remove the outer, tough, stringy layer.

• 2 tablespoons minced onion

• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill (or to taste)

• a few turns of the pepper mill

The fish is on the salty side, so you may not need to add salt. You taste it and decide.

Method:

• Carefully remove the meat from the fish to get rid of all those bones, and combine it in a food processor with the mayo, or mayo—sour cream combo.

• Pulse until you have a smooth paste

• Turn the fish out into a mixing bowl and fold in the remaining ingredients.

That's it!