Radish & Salmon Crostini with Chive Goat Cheese

I used to get smoked salmon very often before. It's so easy to pack a sandwich with some sort of fresh cheese, smoked salmon and a few herbs that I used to take them with me to lunch regularly when I worked at a farm. It was easy to supplement my sandwich with other raw veggies I'd get from the farm picked minutes ago. Green beans, snap peas, radishes....they all seemed to taste so much better when picked by yourself. I miss working at the farm. I also used to hike a lot on my off days back then and this used to be the perfect take along food for long 5-6 hour hikes. I came across smoked salmon at Costco recently and realized I hadn't bought it in a while. These days, to me, smoked salmon seems like very elegant food. And I love how fancy my lunch feels when I eat it. Although my cats would beg to differ and say smoked salmon is not just elegant/fancy time food but can be eaten everyday ;)

That's Billy below in the photo, wanting to see if I'd let her eat the salmon off my plate. The cats go crazy anytime I'm cooking with salmon in the kitchen. I have to keep pushing them off. Although I usually give in and give them a tiny piece as a treat.

With spring in the air, herbs are all over the farmers market and look really good. Normally a bunch of chives would be a pathetic 1/2" diameter bunch. But the ones I'm getting lately are a nice thick bunch so I decided to make some flavored chive goat cheese. And sunny spring days these days call for lighter lunches, so a smoked salmon crostini is just the thing to use the chive chèvre on. I hope you enjoy this just as much as I did!

Recipe inspired from Cook Beautiful, Athena Calderone
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:
1 bunch chives, a few sprigs set aside and the rest chopped
8 oz chèvre, goat cheese
1 sourdough baguette (12 oz weight)
olive oil
1 bunch french breakfast radish, thinly sliced
8 oz smoked wild salmon

Instructions:
Mix the chopped chives with the goat cheese well. Slice the baguettes into thin slices diagonally and brush with olive oil. Broil on both sides till the bread starts to color a little. Spread goat cheese on the bread and top with radish slices. Top with thin sliced of smoked salmon and garnish with a few chive sprigs. Serve and enjoy!