A really indulgent and admittedly slightly old-fashioned dish, this salmon and caviar cake reminds me of some prosperous years our family enjoyed in the 1990s, managing to recover from the blows of the collapsed Soviet regime. While the cake was the star show at most family gatherings, I remember really clearly the very first time I tasted it at my uncle’s and aunt’s dinner party. Of course, as any cake, it should be made for a very special occasion and treated with real awe. You can go retro with the decoration if you’d like to relive the 90s, or opt for a more contemporary minimalist look, as I did here.
Makes: 1 cake, 8 slices
Time: 35-40 minutes
PHOTOGRAPHY: LIZZIE MAYSON, FOOD STYLING: TAMARA VOS, PROP STYLING: LOUIE WALLER
Season: Spring/Summer/Autumn
Ingredients
For the pancakes
300g of plain flour
2 pinches of salt
4 tbsp of melted butter
1 egg
350ml of whole milk
300ml of boiling water
50-70g of butter for frying
For the filling
400g of thick Greek yoghurt or sour cream
1 lemon, juiced and zested
1 medium bunch of dill
2 tsp of pink peppercorns in brine
4 tsp of capers
2 tsp of jalapeños
1 large cucumber, thinly sliced
200g of smoked salmon
200g of poached salmon
50-100g of red caviar
180g of cream cheese
Method
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In a large bowl, whisk together plain flour, salt, melted butter, egg, whole milk and boiling water until you get a smooth runny batter.
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Heat up a frying pan and melt a teaspoon of butter to grease it. Pour 1/2 a medium ladle of batter onto the pan and swirl around till you have one thin even layer. Fry on one side for about 40 seconds to a minute. Flip and fry on the other side for another 30 seconds.
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Stack the crepes on a plate and continue to fry until all the batter is used up. The mixture yields around 30 crepes.
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To prepare the filling which will go between the layers of buttery pancakes, mix 400g of Greek yoghurt with juice and zest of 1 lemon, dill, pink pepper corns, capers and jalapeños, all finely chopped. Taste for seasoning and add a small pinch of salt if you like.
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To assemble your cake, add the yoghurt mixture between every two pancakes, and then alternate with a layer of smoked and poached salmon, cucumber and caviar. Keep stacking them up until you’ve run out of ingredients. You might have a few pancakes leftover, which is never bad news!
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To finish your masterpiece cover the entire cake with cream cheese before serving it proudly to your guests. Make sure they all take a moment to admire your creation and only then cut into it to reveal the beautifully coloured layers.
Read more: Salt & Time
Alissa’s first cookbook Salt & Time tells stories of the food of her native Russia and her childhood. It brings her modern interpretation of the rich and wonderful cuisine of Siberia into the Western kitchen, interwoven with intimate discussions on identity, people, place and history.
— about the author
