Salmon Cakes With Spicy Curry Mayo

For the past week, I have been fighting THE WORST cold I think I've EVER had (alright, maybe I'm exaggerating a little there).  Wallowing in self pity and craving comfort food I decided to make a meal my mom serves often (and can make better than anyone else, if you ask me)--salmon cakes with spicy curry mayo.

Maybe that doesn't sound like comfort food to you, but this is much more comforting to me than mac 'n cheese or fried chicken or the like.  These salmon cakes are delicious and always remind me of home.

Salmon Cakes

12-14 oz canned or jarred salmon (skin removed)

1/2 of a red bell pepper, finely diced

4 green onions, finely slice the white ends and about half of the greens

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 egg

1-2 oz panko bread crumbs

olive oil for frying

fresh flat leaf parsley for garnish

Spicy Curry Mayo

1/3 c mayonnaise 

2 1/2 tsp curry powder

cayenne pepper to taste

For the salmon cakes:
Gently flake apart the salmon in a medium sized bowl.  Add in the chopped red pepper and green onions as well as the egg, salt and pepper.  Stir, breaking up the egg, just until combined.  You don't want to work the mixture too much--try to keep the salmon chunky rather than totally mashed.

Form the salmon mixture into small patties with your hands (about 1/2 c of salmon mixture to each patty--this recipe will make about 5 or 6 patties--enough for two people).  Place your panko crumbs on a plate then coat each patty in the crumbs by gently pressing them onto the surface (be careful not to break the patty apart).

Heat olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of a large skillet) on med-high heat until shimmering but not smoking.  Gently place your salmon cakes in the hot oil and fry until golden brown.  Turn the cakes, again being very careful not to break them apart, and fry on the other side until golden brown.  Remove from the pan and set aside.

For the spicy curry mayo:  Stir together the mayonnaise with the curry power and then add in a dash or two of cayenne pepper.  Stir to combine and taste.  Add more cayenne if you prefer the sauce to be spicier.

Put a small dab of the curry sauce on top of the salmon cake and garnish with some roughly chopped fresh parsley.  I served the salmon cakes with some simple mashed potatoes.  Enjoy!

Fresh Alaskan Salmon Tacos with Cucumber Relish & Chipotle Sour Cream

Since everyone in this household is a BIG fan of fish tacos--I thought I'd try to come up with a recipe that used salmon instead of halibut or ling cod or bass (what we usually use).  These tacos were awesome!  I seared the salmon with a few spices on top then topped it off with a cool cucumber relish and a spicy chipotle sour cream.  Oh so good.....

 Cucumber & Cilantro Relish

1 English cucumber (no seeds), peeled and finely diced (about 1 cup)

1/2 c loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped

1 tsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp olive oil

1/8 tsp kosher salt

1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Place all ingredients in a bowl.  Stir to combine.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Chipotle Sour Cream

This sour cream is pretty spicy but works well along side the cool, cucumber relish.  If you prefer a little less spice, you can leave out the extra tablespoon of adobo sauce. 

1c sour cream

1 chipotle pepper (packed in adobo sauce) + 1 tbsp adobo sauce

2 tsp fresh lime juice

1/4tsp kosher salt

Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor.  Pureé until smooth.  Transfer to a serving bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve.

 Fresh Alaskan King Salmon from Yakutat, Alaska (caught this one myself!)

Pepper & Cumin Crusted Salmon

1.5-2lbs fresh Alaskan King Salmon, skin on

Pat the salmon dry with a clean paper towel.  Lightly sprinkle with kosher salt and then evenly coat with the spice rub.

Spice Rub

1 tsp ground coriander seed

1 tsp ground cumin

1 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in a medium sized fry pan on medium-high heat until VERY hot.  Place fish in the pan, flesh side down to sear.  Turn the fish only once and cook until it's just barely done in the center (about 4 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness of the filet).  Remove the fish from the heat and set aside.

12 corn tortillas

vegetable oil for frying

kosher salt

4-6 fresh, clean lettuce leaves, shredded

Place enough vegetable oil in a medium sized fry pan to cover the bottom of the pan by about 1/4 inch.  Heat on medium-high heat until shimmering but not smoking.  Fry tortillas, one at a time, until crispy and golden brown, but still pliable.  Remove tortillas from the pan, fold into a taco shape and sprinkle lightly with kosher salt.  Set fried tortilla on a plate lined with a paper towel to drain off excess oil.  Repeat until all tortillas are fried.

To assemble the tacos, place a bit of lettuce in the bottom of each taco shell.  Flake apart the salmon (remove skin and be careful to watch for and remove any bones) and evenly distribute between the 12 tacos.  Garnish each taco with a bit of the cucumber relish and chipotle sour cream.  Serve with the excess sour cream and a fresh lime wedge.  Enjoy!

The finished product--fresh and delicious!

Tomatillo Soup

I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I love soup.  And when it comes to Tomatillo Soup, well now were talking at least top three--maybe even number one on the list.  Not only does this soup have amazing flavor, it holds a special place in my heart as it was a soup I learned to make from my late Grandma Lou.  This is her recipe and it's fantastic.  I don't know about you but, before learning to make this soup, I wasn't using tomatillos much.  But, since adding this soup to my arsenal of recipes, I've found myself using tomatillos frequently--not just in soup but salsas, sauces, marinades and more.

While tomatillos are related to tomatoes, they are completely different in color, texture and taste.  A ripe tomatillo is bright green, the inside firm and their flavor tart--very different than a regular, red tomato.  But when roasted, tomatillos get a little sweet and mix perfectly with spicy or even smokey flavors.

Grandma's Tomatillo Soup isn't spicy or smokey but it does highlight the great flavor of the tomatillos, it's creamy with the addition of avocado, fresh tasting with a generous helping of fresh cilantro and is so versatile, you can add just about any protein to it (chicken, shrimp, crab, fish, red meat, etc) and have a filling, fantastic meal.

Let's get to it.

Tomatillo Soup
8-10 medium tomatillos, husks (papery outer casing) removed, washed, dried and quartered
1 medium yellow onion, cut into large chunks (about the same size as the tomatillo quarters)
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed with the side of your knife
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 in cubes (optional)
6 c chicken broth
1 ripe avocado, cut into large chunks
4 corn tortillas
1 generous handful of fresh cilantro leaves
salt & pepper to taste

1.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. After removing and discarding the papery husks of the tomatillos, rinse or wipe clean the exterior of the tomatillo then cut into quarters. Toss your quartered tomatillos, onion chunks and smashed garlic cloves with 1 tbsp olive oil, 1/4 tsp kosher salt and 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper until evenly coated.  Spread out in an even layer on a rimmed baking sheet and roast in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes until tomatillos and onions are soft and just barely starting to brown.

2.  While your tomatillos are roasting, prep your other ingredients: chop the avocado up into large chunks, tear apart your corn tortillas and gather your fresh cilantro.  Set these aside.

If using chicken in your soup, continue on to step 3.  Otherwise, read the notes below and then skip to step 4.

3.  Heat remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil on medium heat in the bottom of a heavy soup pot.  Season your chicken with a little salt and pepper then brown in the pot.  Don't worry about the chicken cooking all the way through now.  It can finish cooking in the soup later--you're just browning it now.  Once the chicken is browned, remove from the pan and set aside.

NOTE: If you are the owner of an immersion blender then carry on with the IMMERSION BLENDER part of step 4.  If you don't have an immersion blender but instead will be using a food processor to pureé your tomatillos, avocado, etc, follow the FOOD PROCESSOR instructions.

A NOTE TO THE NOTE: Don't have an immersion blender?  That's too bad.  Get one.  I am not a big fan of kitchen tools (personally, I think many of them are unnecessary).  But, my immersion blender has won me over as it doesn't take up much space, can pureé soups right in the pot, froth hot milk for a latté, make smoothies and more.  AND, it does all this while cutting down on the number of dishes I or my dishwasher have to tackle compared to when I have to use my food processor (another handy machine but one of many parts).

4.  IMMERSION BLENDER: Once your tomatillo mixture has finished roasting, remove from the oven and using a rubber spatula, scrape into your soup pot (if you're using chicken, just use the same pot you cooked your chicken in--no need to clean it between steps.  If you aren't using chicken, you'll want to heat your pot on medium heat with the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil before adding in the roasted tomatillo mixture.).  Once your roasted tomatillos, onion and garlic are in the soup pot, next add in the chicken broth, avocado, torn tortilla pieces and cilantro.  Just throw it all in the pot--don't worry, I know it doesn't look pretty now but, you'll smooth it all out later.  Let all of this cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes--you want the avocado and tortillas to be really soft.  Now, using your immersion blender, blend the mixture in the pot until it is of a smooth, consistent texture.  You don't want any large chunks so pureé thoroughly.

 FOOD PROCESSOR:  Once your tomatillo mixture has finished roasting, remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes--until about room temp.  Using a rubber spatula, scrape roasted mixture into the bowl of your food processor.  Add the avocado, torn bits of tortilla and cilantro (you may have to work in batches here--everything might not fit in the food processor in one shot).  Pureé these ingredients together until smooth and set aside.  In your soup pot, heat the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil and medium heat.  Pour in tomatillo pureé and cook for just a few minutes before adding in your chicken broth.  Stir to combine.

Roasted tomatillos, onions and garlic.

When using an immersion blender, everything goes right in the pot!

Ready to blend.

   Thoroughly pureéd, smooth and delicious!

5.  If you cooked chicken earlier to add to the soup, go ahead and add it in now.  Cook the tomatillo soup for about another 10 minutes on medium heat, just to let all of the flavors combine and to let your chicken finish cooking through.  You don't want to boil the soup--it should just be simmering away nicely.  Taste the soup and add salt and pepper to your taste.

At this point, you're ready to serve!  If you didn't use chicken, now is when you'd want to add an alternate protein if you so choose.  Instead of mixing your protein of choice in throughout the soup however, just pile it on top like a garnish.  Dungeness crab meat is DELICIOUS and gorgeous piled on top, so are cooked shrimp, seared scallops or any cooked fresh white fish.

Or, if you used chicken in the soup, try topping it with crunchy tortilla strips (see instructions below), or sour cream and/or a mild cheese like Monterey Jack or queso fresco, fresh tomato salsa or spicy black bean salsa....the possibilities are endless--get creative!


Crunchy Tortilla Strips
8-10 corn tortillas, cut into 1/4-1/2 inch strips
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Toss the tortilla strips with oil and salt until evenly coated.  Spread in even layer on a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees, stirring occasionally until crisp and light golden brown.

Pizza Margherita

Last week a friend and I took a day trip to Eugene for some shopping and stumbled upon a great little market known as Market of Choice.  It's like a mini Whole Foods--a.k.a HEAVEN.  I of course went a little over-board, especially in the cheese department, and now have a lot of really fresh food that needs to be eaten NOW, before it spoils.  One of those super fresh treats was some fresh mozzarella.  My favorite way to eat fresh mozzarella is in a Caprese salad but since I didn't have the right tomatoes for that (and I've resolved not to go back to the grocery store until at least next week), I thought I'd put it to use on a delicious Pizza Margherita.

I formulated a recipe in my head then thought, "Is my Pizza Margherita really Pizza Margherita or is it just a simple cheese pizza that I've adopted the fancy name for?".  I thought I should do a little research into what makes an authentic Pizza Margherita.  Rather than travel all the way to Naples, Italy (I WISH!!), I resorted to reading through a couple of cook books and light searching on the good ol' Internet.

I of course started my search in my Dean & DeLuca Cookbook (1996) (my absolute favorite because not only are the recipes WONDERFUL and different but, they provide a lot of background information so, it's almost like a textbook).  Here I found out, among other things, that the Neapolitans actually use a tomato sauce that is uncooked.  It is simply a purée of peeled plum tomatoes.  Well, my sauce is already WAY OFF since not only is it cooked, it's a combination of garlic, wine, tomatoes, red chili flakes and more.  But, that's alright, I like my pizza sauce and that's really the most important thing, right?

Most of the websites I consulted on the topic provided similar recipes--fresh tomatoes (either sliced or puréed), super fresh mozzarella (Buffalo milk preferred), fresh basil, olive oil and a really good crust recipe.

I have always used the same recipe for my pizza crusts--I think it has good flavor and texture so, I've never really had a reason to change it up.  I'm really not sure where the recipe came from--just one of those recipes that I found somewhere, scratched down on a little piece of paper and have kept among my recipes for years.

So, while the following recipe for Pizza Margherita might not be as authentic as others, I think it's pretty tasty.  I'll save the authentic stuff for when I visit Italy......someday.

Pizza Dough
1 1/4 cups warm water (not too hot...not too cold...just right for the yeast)
1 package active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
3 1/2-4 cups flour (you'll use less if you are using bread flour and a little more if you're using all-purpose flour)
cornmeal for sprinkling

In a large bowl, combine 1/4 c of warm water with the yeast and sugar.  Stir to combine and let sit until foaming (about 5 minutes).  Be patient here...let it foam up and get to work.  If your yeast doesn't foam, that means it's old and has lost its mojo so pitch it and start over with some fresh stuff.

When the yeast mixture is ready, stir in the remaining cup of warm water, the olive oil and salt.  Next add in about 1 1/2 cups of your flour and stir until it's smooth.  Slowly add in another cup of flour, stirring until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.



Now turn your dough out onto a lightly floured surface and kneed while working in just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to your work surface and until it is smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes).

                           [Pre-kneading]                                     [After-kneading]

Grab another bowl (or wash & dry out the one you were already working with) and drizzle the inside with a little olive oil.  Place your ball of dough inside the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise on your counter (at room temp) for at least an hour or until doubled in size.

After rising, punch down the dough, turn out onto a floured surface, cut in half and let rest for at least 15 minutes.  Resting the dough will keep it nice and elastic, chewy but not tough.  Dough will get really tough if it's over-worked.  While your dough is resting, preheat your oven (with pizza stone inside and on a rack close to the top of the oven) to 525 degrees.  If you don't have a pizza stone, you really should get one.  It helps to cook your crust evenly and quickly.  Time to start the tomato sauce.

Tomato Sauce (Makes enough for two, 12 inch pizzas)
1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 generous tbsp of really good, extra concentrated tomato paste
1/2 c dry red wine
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Heat the olive oil in a medium sized sauce pan on medium heat.  Add in the garlic and cook until fragrant (about 1 minute, stirring constantly) but DON'T BROWN/BURN it.  Burnt garlic is very bitter--not what we're going for.  Next add in the tomato paste and cook with the garlic, stirring constantly until the paste deepens in color...like to a brick red.

[Sauce at start of simmer, before it has reduced]

[Sauce after reducing for about 10-15 minutes]

Pizza Toppings
1/2 lb really fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/4 in thick slices and about 1-1.5 inches in size.
Generous bunch of fresh basil leaves, cleaned and dried.  Some like to leave the leaves whole, some slice them into pretty ribbons by rolling the leaves like a cigar then thinly slicing, and some (like me) tear the whole leaves into large, 'rustic' bits.  You do whichever you prefer.

Now that all of your toppings (sauce, cheese and basil) are ready to go, and your pizza stone is preheated in your SUPER hot oven, grab one of your halves of dough.  Again working on a lightly floured surface, gently work the dough into a round by pressing gently with your fingers from the center of the round out to the edge and then stretching by hand.  You want the round to be about 12 inches in diameter and about a 1/4 inch thick throughout (maybe only slightly thicker right at the edge).

                          

 Sprinkle your smoking hot pizza stone with a little cornmeal and then place your dough on top.  Pre-bake your crust for about 5 minutes without any toppings.  I like to do this because I really don't like soggy pizza and I think pre-baking helps the crust to cook through evenly and get a little crunchy on the bottom.

[After baking without toppings for about 5 minutes]

After 5 minutes, remove pizza from the oven, spread on about half of your sauce and then arrange half of your mozzarella and basil leaves on top as well.  Return to the oven and bake for about another 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted, a little bubbly and the crust is a light golden brown.  Repeat with the second round of dough for a second pizza.  Slice and enjoy!

French Onion Soup

What's for dinner?  French onion soup!  This is such a tasty soup, easy to make and makes a great winter night meal.  My recipe has always been pretty basic so, I thought I do a little reading through my various cook books to see what the pros do.  Sir Dean & Sir Deluca had the best recipe I think but, I didn't want to do exactly what they did--instead, I just let them influence me a bit.

I really don't like a French onion soup that is too sweet.  It will be a little sweet due to the caramelized onions but, I think the natural sugars in the onion are enough and no added sugar is necessary.  In addition to adding sugar, Dean & Deluca also use Cognac in their soup (I bet that's good!) but I didn't have any of that on hand so I added a splash of very dry vermouth instead.

You really should give this soup a try--I'm a major soup lover and this is definitely in my top 5!

French Onion Soup

4-6 medium onions (I like to use sweet onions but yellow onions work well too)

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) of unsalted butter

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp flour

2 tbsp very dry vermouth

4 c hot beef broth

1/2 tsp kosher salt + a pinch for the croutons

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

~2 1/2 c homemade croutons (see recipe below)

8 oz Gruyere cheese, coarsely grated (or any other form of a Swiss cheese)

To start, peel and slice the onions into 1/4-1/2 inch slices.  You should have a lot of onions (about 6 cups all sliced up).  Put 2 tbsp of olive oil and the butter in a heavy bottomed soup pot (I really like to use my enamel coated cast iron dutch oven).  Once the butter is melted in the oil and is good and hot, add your onion slices to the pot.  Cook the onions down for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  

While the onions are cooking, make your croutons.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  While it's preheating, cut a few slices from a loaf of good, crusty bread and then cut the slices into large cubes.  Toss the cubes with your remaining 1 tbsp of olive oil and a pinch of kosher salt, then spread out into an even layer on a baking sheet.  Bake the croutons for about 10 minutes or until crunchy and lightly golden brown.  When the croutons are done baking, remove from the oven and set aside.

After about 20 minutes your onions should be cooked way down and be fairly translucent.  But, they won't yet be caramelized so, you'll need to keep cooking them for about another 20 minutes.  As the liquid released from the onions evaporates, you need to stir them more frequently so that they become a rich brown in color and evenly caramelized but do not burn.  Watch the onions closely, DON'T let them burn.

  

About half-way through cooking the onions down.

Here are the onions after they've cooked about another 15-20 minutes-getting nice and golden and sweet!  Time to add in the flour--sprinkle your tablespoon of flour over the onions and cook for another 2-3 minutes, stirring often.  You want to cook out the raw flour taste but still be careful not to burn the onions.

After cooking the flour with the onions for a few minutes, add the 2 tbsp vermouth and try to scrape up the bits from the bottom of the pan.  Next add in the beef broth, salt & pepper.  Bring the soup to a boil then lower the heat to a simmer and cook with the lid on the pot (but slightly ajar) for about 30 minutes.  While this is cooking, preheat your oven broiler.

 After simmering for about 30 minutes, taste the soup and add salt and pepper to your liking.  Then distribute the soup equally between four oven safe bowls....

Top with your delicious homemade croutons...

Then top with a generous helping of the grated Gruyere...

Place your oven safe bowls on a baking sheet then cook under the preheated broiler until the cheese is totally melted, bubbly and starting to brown. Remove from the oven and serve!

We had our soup tonight along side a simple salad dressed with a mustard & balsamic vinaigrette.  Dean & Deluca also recommended serving French onion soup with a glass of Beaujolais.  Ha!  I had a bottle left over from Christmas--LUCKY ME.  A delicious dinner.  I hope you give it a try.

Game Day Gourmet

Well, finally January 10th has arrived.  Game day.  My husband is currently GLUED to the television, anxiously cheering on his Oregon Ducks in the BCS National Championship game.  Don't get me wrong--I also support the Green and Gold.  I love to kick back and watch a little football.  I also love a dinner made of a collection of appetizers...and game day is the perfect day for that.

This afternoon's menu consisted of the following:
Puff Pastry Wrapped Brie served with mini toasts
Spinach & Bacon Stuffed Mushrooms
Olives & Cheese

A simple menu but, it was just the three of us at home today (and one of us, being only 2 years old, doesn't consume much).  So, better to keep it simple but tasty.

The Spinach and Bacon Stuffed Mushrooms were inspired by one of my favorite salads (spinach salad with bacon and mushrooms) but the recipe was created using only items I already had in my fridge (I've kinda been over-extending myself in the grocery-budget department so, I figured I could come up with SOMETHING without making yet another trip to the store).

Ingredients:
Half of a package of bacon (about 10 strips), cut into 1/2 inch strips
1 tbsp butter
1/2 finely diced yellow onion
~24 crimini mushrooms, brushed clean
1 pkg frozen spinach, thawed and drain of all excess water
1/2 c dry white wine
4 oz cream cheese, at room temp
1/2 c fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 bread crumbs*

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Heat a large skillet on the stove on medium heat.  Put the bacon bits in the pan to cook, stirring occasionally.  While the bacon is cooking chop your onions and hollow out your mushrooms.  To hollow out the criminis, I suggest using a melon-baller.  A melon-baller makes it easy to hollow out a clean well in the center of the mushroom.

Save the bits of mushroom you carve out, finely dice them as you did the onions and set aside.  Once the bacon is crispy (but not cremated), remove from the pan using a slotted spoon and drain on a plate lined with a clean paper towel.  Drain most of the bacon grease from the pan, leaving about 1 tbsp remaining.  Return the skillet to the heat and add in 1 tbsp butter.  Once the butter has melted, saute your onions and mushroom bits on medium heat until onions are translucent.

Squeeze all of the liquid you can out of the thawed spinach then add the spinach to the onions and mushrooms in the pan.  Cook for about one minute then deglaze the pan with the half cup of white wine.  Be sure to scrape up all of the tasty bits that have stuck to the bottom of the pan throughout the saute process--they should come up easily when the wine is added and they hold a lot of flavor.  Once most of the wine has cooked out and the pan is fairly dry, remove from the heat and let cool to room temp.

Once your onion/spinach mixture has cooled, transfer to a medium sized bowl.  To the bowl add the cream cheese and Parmesan cheese and mix well.  Next add in the egg yolk, salt and pepper--stir to combine.  Finally, fold in your cooked bacon bits.

  Arrange your hollowed out mushroom caps on a baking sheet (about 2 inches apart) and then fill each one with about a tablespoon of filling--the cavity should be filled and a little filling mounded on top.

Sprinkle the top of each filled mushroom with a little bit of bread crumbs then bake for about 20 minutes or until the filling has cooked through and the bread crumbs have toasted to a light golden brown.  Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes before serving.  Enjoy!

*I used garlic bread crumbs that I made a month or so ago and keep in the freezer.  Whenever I have a heel of a loaf or a chunk of good crusty bread left over, I wrap it up and throw it in the freezer.  When I have a good collection of bread chunks, I toast them in the oven with a little olive oil and salt.  After they've toasted, I pulse them in the food processor until they are turned into a consistent sized crumb.  Seal the bread crumbs in a mason jar or Ziploc bag then return to the freezer.  Voila!  Fresh bread crumbs whenever you need them.