Salmon Cakes

Inspired by a post I saw, I decided to shake up our salmon this week.  Rather than our usual baking or BBQing, I decided to make salmon cakes. 

Here is my version of Naked Moxie's recipe:

1 lb salmon
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/2 yellow pepper, diced
2 green onions, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups panko
Olive oil

Bake salmon at 350F for 15-20 minutes, or until done.  Cool for 10 minutes.

While salmon is baking, dice vegetables.

Flake salmon into a large bowl.  Add in the red pepper, yellow pepper, green onions, garlic, spices, dijon, eggs and panko.  Mix well.  Use your hands!

Form patties from the salmon mixture, approximately 8 (depending on the size you prefer).

In a skillet, heat some olive oil.

Place salmon cakes into the heated olive oil and cook until browned on both sides.

This would pair well with a salad, and we had ours with quinoa.

VERDICT:
My husband and I both enjoyed the salmon, it was a nice change to our usual!  I particularly enjoyed the fresh veggies inside the cakes, added nice crunch and colour.  Our son stuck his nose up at the dinner, more because he was tired than anything because once he tried the salmon, he also liked it.  In fact...I'm going to go eat the leftovers now!


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Chicken Asiago Dijon

For dinner tonight I made a pasta favourite of ours that we discovered last summer when we had an abundance of tomatoes in the garden - and I needed to find new recipes for those tomatoes.  Typically we serve this dish with grilled chicken, but my husband was in meetings until late tonight so I had to come up with a "Plan B".  A little digging and I found a new recipe...what a surprise!

Before I get into tonight's new recipe, I have to share.  My oldest son is getting in on this project too.  I have my "binder" of collected recipes out and I have been tagging some of them to try.  This afternoon he called me into the living room as he was going through the binder, tagging all the recipes that he wants me to make for our family.  Sooooo cute and so funny, he was very serious about his choices.  I'll have to take a closer look and see if any catch my eye!

Back to today's new recipe.  I don't BBQ (had a bad experience once when I was much younger...I leave the grilling to our resident grill master, aka my husband!), so the grilled chicken was out.  I found a recipe using Panko, which I adjusted to compliment the pasta dish we were having.  Here is the recipe:

Chicken Asiago Dijon

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/2 cup Panko
1 tablespoon parmesan cheese (dried)
2 tablespoons asiago cheese, grated
1 tablespoon parsley flakes

In a bowl, mix melted butter, garlic and mustard.  Set aside.

In a pie dish, mix Panko, parmesan cheese, asiago cheese and parsley.

Coat chicken in mustard sauce on both sides; dip chicken in crumb mixture to coat (all sides).  Lay chicken in baking pan (I used a foil lined baking pan with a light layer of olive oil).

Bake at 400F for 25-30 minutes or until chicken is cooked.

VERDICT:
What a delightful surprise!  Warning though, if you are not a fan of stronger cheeses, asiago cheese does have a stronger flavour, you may wish to substitute with a less potent cheese.  We all enjoyed the chicken, it was very tasty, crunchy, and yet seemed light.  We were fighting over the lefotver bits!  Unfortunately the picture doesn't do the meal much justice...but at least it's an idea of what it looks like when cooked!

Lobster Fettucine

After his initial "teasings", my husband is quite on board with my resolution to try one new recipe a week, and is even helping with suggestions.  What's funny is that he and I both came across the recipe for Lobster Fettucine within days of each other - he came across it at work and I at home.  Yes, I know, we are meant to be.  So it seemed suiting that I make it for us for Valentine's Day :-)  And...we even hit a sale on lobster, how fortunate was that?! (really...meant to be!).

This recipe is for a dinner for two, so be sure to adjust accordingly.

Here is the recipe:

1 cup thinly sliced fennel

1 tablespoon butter

2 teaspoons flour

1/4 cup dry vermouth

3/4 cup whipping cream (35%)
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 lobster tails, shelled and coarsely chopped
1/2 of a 350 g package fresh fettucine
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Chives, chopped
Fresh pepper to taste

Heat a frying pan over medium.  Add butter and fennel.  Cook, stirring frequently, until fennel is soft, about 4 minutes.

Stir in flour and cook 1-2 minutes.

Add vermouth and cook until completely evaporated, about 2-3 minutes.

Whisk in cream, dijon and salt, stirring constantly until saucy, about 2 minutes.

Add lobster and simmer about 3 minutes.

Cook fettucine in boiling water, following package directions but omitting salt, until al dente, 3-4 minutes.  Drain then stir into sauce along with lemon juice.  Garnish with chives.

Thank you Chatelaine, February 2012 for the recipe.

And THANK YOU Mom and Dad for the vermouth!

VERDICT:
It was delicious!  I had never cooked with fennel (or vermouth) before, so not only was this a new recipe, there were new things that we'd never tried before.  We all loved the smell of the fennel though our oldest son thought it tasted too strong.  Must not have been too strong because he asked to eat the leftovers for supper tonight!  Anyways, this was a relatively easy meal to make, cracking the lobster was the hardest part (and my husband did that for me, thanks hun!).  We all enjoyed the meal, along with the recommended pairing of a pinot grigio (our son had juice, that was a little Valentine's treat for him!).  I did add a little fresh pepper to the dish, but other than that, it was good!

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From Mess Hall to Bistro

Pork Tenderloin

Actually, the full title of this recipe is "PORK TENDERLOIN SALTIMBOCCA ROASTED ON A BED OF BRAISED APPLES"...talk about a mouthful!  And we were hoping the mouthful would be delicious!

Rather than what seems to be our usual "Pizza Friday" I opted to make today "New Recipe Friday", armed with another Whitewater Cooks recipe. The pork tenderloin spoke to me because it's made with apples (my husband loves apple sauce with his pork so this seemed like something he would like) and dijon (another thing hubby likes) and white wine (that was for me, LOL).  And everything is the recipe are things I typically have on hand at home, with the exception of the prosciutto and sage (the sage only because it's February and the garden isn't growing!).  Anyways, it was a fairly easy dish to prepare, I think slicing the apples took the most time.  Here is the recipe...verdict to come.

1 pork tenderloin (about 1 1/2 lbs)
2 tablespoons dijon
1 teaspoon pepper (fresh ground)
1 teaspoon salt
10 sage leaves (enough to cover top of the pork)
4-6 prosciutto slices
4-5 gala apples, thinly sliced, peels on
1 cup white wine (cookbook suggests riesling or gewurztraminer), I used gewurztraminer
1 tablespoon cold butter
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon dijon

Brush dijon on top of pork.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place sage leaves all along the top of the pork.  Lay prosciutto slices on work surface one after the other, slightly overlapping.  Place pork on prosciutto slices, sage side down, wrap it around the pork.  Arrange apple slices in bottom of oven-proof roasting pan and drizzle with 1/2 cup wine.  Put pork on top of apples with sage side up.

Roast in preheated 375F oven for 30-35 minutes.

Remove from oven and set pork aside on platter and cover with tin foil.  Place roasting pan on stove top at medium-low heat and add remaining 1/2 cup wine to apples to deglaze, about 2 minutes.  Add cold butter, maple syrup and 1 teaspoon dijon and simmer for 3 minutes.  Slice the pork and serve it with the warm apples.

VERDICT:
While it was a nice change for pork tenderloin, it wasn't our favourite dish ever.  It was good, but not great.  DH wasn't a big fan of the sage, though I enjoyed the fresh sage flavour. Prosciutto...um, yum! In the apples you could taste the wine and the maple syrup.  But overall it was just OK.  We might make it again, but then again, we might not.  Can't win them all!

That's OK...I have a whack of tagged recipes to try...I've got a few in mind for the next week, perhaps even a special Valentine's dinner!