So long story short--last night Darrell and I had four of our close friends over for dinner, and it was super fun. I got to pull out some fancy wedding gifts that we hadn't used yet and try a few new recipes. We had two "appetizers"--spinach artichoke dip and fruit with dip, and then for the main course Darrell made his Cajun chicken pasta (soooo good. And the dish that takes credit for introducing me to the deliciousness that is red peppers). And then I made a dessert in the crock-pot! It was pretty interesting, but surprisingly had quite a bit of cake-texture like it was supposed to and then lots of fudgy goodness to scoop out on top.
I didn't really have an opportunity to capture pictures of all the components of the meal, but here was our table setting.
We were fancy and I was excited. I did accidently pour wine into the water glasses initially, but quickly fixed the mistake. I'm just not used to being fancy!
So on to the recipe. Last week when Darrell had to work and I didn't I decided to surprise him with a new recipe. Not always a good idea, because I tend to get easily flustered when I cook. But the end result was edible, and actually tasty, so that's all that matters.
Salmon Cakes with Cool Lime Sauce
Sauce:
1 lime
1/2 cup mayo
1/4 cup sour cream
Zest lime to measure 2 tsp zest, and juice to measure 2 tsp juice. Combine with mayo and sour cream; mix well and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Salmon Cakes:
2 cans (6 oz) skinless, boneless pink salmon packed in water, flaked and drained
1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions with tops
1 tbsp snipped fresh cilantro
3/4 cup unseasoned dry bread crumbs, divided
1/3 cup mayo
1 egg white
Combine all ingredients, reserving 1/4 cup of the bread crumbs on a small plate or shallow bowl. Scoop the salmon mixture into desired size, and place in bread crumbs. Flatten to 1/2 inch thickness and turn to coat evenly with crumbs. Heat skillet over medium heat until hot and cook salmon cakes 6-8 minutes or until golden brown, turning once. Serve with lime sauce.
If you can't tell in the picture, my cakes got a little burnt because our skillets cook really hot, so I probably should have cooked ours over low heat and not medium. I also attempted to halve the recipe, which was a little dicey to figure out half an egg white, so ours were pretty crumbly and didn't hold their shape. We got five medium sized cakes out of half the recipe, so I'd say the full recipe would probably feed around five people. The book I got the recipe out of recommends making them really small and serving them as appetizers, which I suppose would work pretty well too. Oh, and to health it up a bit, I've heard that Greek yogurt can be substituted for mayo in most recipes (I think?), so that might be something we'll try next time (at least in the sauce). And definitely make sure you taste-test the sauce to ensure it has a lime-flavoring. The lime is very tasty with the salmon and pepper.
If you try it you'll have to let me know what you think! This is definitely something we'll be making again!
Random question. Is it your skillets that cook hot or your stove? You have a flat top stove right? I do as well and HATE it. The temp is way too hard to regulate because if you want to turn something down, you have to remove the pan from the burner rather than just turn down the heat since. The burners do not cool down forever! Maybe it's just mine. I will never, ever, ever have a flat top in a kitchen I own.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a combination of the pans and the flat top stove. I was cooking again last night and had similar scorching issues, and Darrell told me that when a recipe calls for medium-high heat, that usually means like a four, not a six, on our stovetop because it gets (and stays!) so hot. But the aluminum core in our stainless steel pans also causes our pans to retain their heat as well. Sometimes its just a hot mess (literally!) in the kitchen.
ReplyDelete