Dill Pikelets with Smoked Salmon

Pikelet making tends to be a bit of a lost art these days, although the pikelet has re-emerged recently in a savoury guise. Tiny pikelets, about 2.5cm across, make an ideal base for bite-sized canapes. (How many times have you struggled with finger food that was just too large for one mouthful but wouldn't yield when you tried to bite it in half, or the filling oozed down your hand-dyed silk scarf?)

Dill Pikelets with Smoked Salmon

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon dried dill tips
grated rind of 1 lemon
1 1/2 cups milk
2 medium eggs

Sift the flour and baking powder onto a large bowl and stir in the salt, dill, lemon rind and sugar. Whisk together the eggs and milk and stir well into the dry ingredients - or you can place the lot in a food processor and blend till smooth.

Heat a non-stick frypan or griddle and grease it lightly. Put a teaspoon of the mixture on the pan and cook until the upper surface become dull, then flip the pikelet over and cook until the other side is golden brown. I usually make one or two trial ones to get the pan temperature correct - turn the pan back to medium once it has heated up.

If you make about half a dozen at a time, once you have flipped these over you can spoon out another six. When you've done that the first six will have finished cooking. It's easier than trying to make 12 at a time. Grease the pan lightly from time to time.

Set the cooked pikelets on a rack to cool down. This mixture will make several dozen. You could freeze half if you don't need this many.

For the topping you will need:

100g cold smoked salmon
1 container or packet of cream cheese (about 200g)
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Chop the smoked salmon in a food processor then add the lemon juice and the cream cheese cut into cubes. If the mixture is particularly stiff, you can soften it with a little cream or milk. Do so cautiously as you don't want it to get runny.

Arrange your pikelets on serving trays or plates. Use a rosette nozzle and fill a piping bag with the salmon mixture and pipe a rosette onto each pikelet. I garnished my pikelets with tiny triangles of cucumber and slivers of pickled red pepper. Cut the end off a small telegraph or Lebanese cucumber and cut down through it lengthwise for about 4cm eight times, cartwheel fashion. When you slice the cucumber each slice will then yield eight triangles. Pat these dry with a paper towel before using for garnish.

Alternatively you could garnish the decorated pikelets with a little fish roe.