Crispy rye bread canapés with cream cheese and smoked salmon

I did a bit of catering on Saturday for a group of friends*, and this smoked salmon and cream cheese paté/spread on crispy rye bread buttons was one of the dishes I brought along. It disappeared very quickly and I wish I had made a double batch - it's an excellent nibble indeed - savoury (smoked salmon), creamy (cream  cheese), crispy (rye bread buttons), fresh (cucumber slices). I also think the contrasting colours look very pretty.

Although I love this spread on crispy rye bread buttons, it works also beautifully with sliced (and toasted) ciabatta or baguette, of course. Here's a photo from last June:


Cream cheese and smoked salmon paté
(Toorjuustu-suitsulõhepasteet)
Makes about a cup

100 g good-quality cold smoked salmon
150 g cream cheese, at room temperature
a small bunch of dill
lemon juice, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

To garnish:
cucumber or lemon slices
fresh dill or chives
finely grated lemon zest

Chop the smoked salmon into small chunks, place into the food processor together with the cream cheese. Add some lemon juice for seasoning and the dill. Process until smooth.
Taste for seasoning - add more lemon juice and season with pepper.

If you're serving this with crispy rye bread buttons, then you need some sliced rye bread (I like a very dark bread here and used "Fazeri must leib"). Cut out small squares or circles and toast them in a preheated 200 C/400 F oven for about 6-7 minutes, until crispy. Cool, then spoon the cream cheese and smoked salmon paté on top and garnish before serving.

You can make the paté up to a day in advance, but don't spread it on toasted rye bread until up to an hour before serving, or you lose the crispiness.

* The other two dishes were tiny spicy chorizo profiteroles and an Estonian crumb cake, cut into tiny slices.