Salmon Cakes with Dijon Cumin Aioli January 19, 2009

OMG! Suddenly you have people coming over! You’re in a rush, and you have to make something fancy for dinner! Your father is judging you! Judging you as you frantically search the cupboards for something tasty, fast and healthy…

This happened to me, so I whipped these up, and they were a big hit! Also, really tasty, and pretty good for you.

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of salmon
• 1 clove garlic, very finely chopped
• 1/4 cup very finely chopped onion
• 1/2 a big zucchini, grated and with most of the moisture squeezed out (see below)
• salt, pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup egg whites, just to bind everything together
• Dijon Cumin Aioli for garnish

Method:

1. Chop up the garlic and onion, then add it to a bowl.
2. Drain the canned salmon really well, and pick out any big bones, dump into a bowl with the garlic and onion, add salt and pepper
3. Grate your zucchini, and spread it into a tea towel. Now wring the crap out of that tea towel to get lots of the moisture out. Repeat, then add the zucchini to the bowl too. This is about 1 cup of zucchini when I do it.
4. Mix everything together, and add the egg white a bit at a time to help it stick. 
5. Take 2 tbsps of the mixture at a time and press into cakes. You may need to squish extra moisture out towards the end. I get 12 cakes, about 2 inches across. 
6. Fry in a hot non-stick pan with some pam until golden brown.
7. Serve with Aioli!

Dijon Cumin Aioli

In a bowl, mix together:

• 2 tbsp miracle whip
• 1 tsp whole grain dijon mustard
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp cumin 

Spoon into a sandwich bag, nip the corner off with some scissors, and then pipe onto finished salmon cakes.

 

Frying the salmon cakes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Golden brown!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

YUM! He's so happy I'm going to eat him!!

Spaghetti Squash with Herbs December 28, 2008

This was served with the most macho of meats - elk steaks sauteed with BEER to balance out the girly squash.

Spaghetti  squash is really, really tasty. However, many people would not agree with my opinion on the matter. I came up with this recipe to entice my roommate to enjoy this vegetable as much as I do, and it worked! It’s a little long on the prep side, but this dish can be both the starch and veggie side dish, plus it looks fantastic, without too much effort. If you want to serve 4 people, I would use the whole squash and double everything else, but for two people, this is a perfect amount. The recipe calls for fresh rosemary because I have rosemary growing in my backyard. Used dried if you need to do a substitution.

The only problem is hacking the damned squash in half, really.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Spaghetti Squash, cooked
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin matchsticks
• 3 cloves garlic, very finely chopped
• 1 tsp fresh rosemary (or 1/2 tsp dried)
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp dried basil
• sea salt
• pepper
• 2 roma tomatoes/3 campari tomatoes, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp of butter/1 tsp white truffle oil (OMG, so fancy!!)

Method:

Cut the squash in half length-wise, and cook on high in the microwave for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until it’s nicely done and good and soft.  While this is happening you can cut up your bell pepper, garlic, tomato and fresh rosemary.

When the squash is done, use a fork to scrape out the flesh, which will come out in fine strands like… well… spaghetti. Hence the name.

Take a large, non-stick frying pan, and put a bit of cooking spray in and turn it onto medium low. Now saute the garlic, and then add the bell pepper when the garlic starts to soften up.

Once the pepper is mostly cooked, turn up the heat to medium, and dump in the cooked squash and the herbs, and add salt and pepper to taste. Once everything is good and hot and the bell pepper is totally cooked, stir in the fresh tomato and add the butter, or remove from the heat and drizzle the truffle oil over everything before serving it.

YUM!

Turkey Meatloaf with Cranberries, Roasted Garlic and Herbs November 11, 2008

I love meatloaf. It’s easy to put together, you throw it into the oven and forget about it, and you can make it as fancy (as in this version) or as simple as you want. 

I am also convinced I’ve found the perfect meat for meatloaf – extra lean ground turkey. I picked up a package on a whim at Safeway, since it’s hard enough to find ground turkey or chicken, and to see extra lean ground turkey is even more rare. 

What makes extra lean ground turkey so amazingly perfect for meatloaf is threefold:

1. Much better for you than ground beef
2. Sticks together so well you can dispense with breadcrumbs and egg
3. Doesn’t overwhelm more subtle flavours, like ground beef would

I came up with the basic idea for the loaf while at the gym, and then did my usual highly experimental cooking when I got home to throw it together. I realize most people balk at the idea of serving meatloaf when entertaining, but this came together so well, I would serve this at a dinner party.

Ingredients:

• 3 cloves of garlic, roasted (instructions to follow)
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary (or 1/2 tsp dried rosemary)
• 1/2 tsp sage
• 1/3 packet onion soup mix 
• approx 1 lb extra lean ground turkey
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries (or fresh, if you have them)
• ground pepper to taste

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350

2. Roast garlic! Take three cloves of garlic and peel them, then put them in a pan and put the pan into your hot oven until the garlic is golden brown – about 10-15 minutes should do it. Check on your garlic a couple of times. Once golden, remove garlic from oven, let cool a bit, then chop/smash into small chunks.

3. In a bowl, combine ground turkey, rosemary, sage, pepper, onion soup mix, cranberries and roasted garlic. Note – if you use fresh cranberries, they will be quite tart. Depends if you like that sort of thing. I do. Mix together until ingredients are well mixed and you can form a loaf that stays together easily. 

4. Put the loaf in the pan you roasted the garlic in, then put that in your 350 degree oven, and bake for about 35-40 minutes until cooked all the way through.

5. Slice and enjoy! Smells divine, tastes like Christmas, and is low in fat and calories for a comfort food like meatloaf – served two ravenous roommates.

Funtime Bonus – to serve this at a dinner party:

• Double the recipe
• Instead of making one loaf, make four mini loaves
• Put a tsp of cranberry sauce into the centre of each loaf before baking
• Garnish with crispy fried sage and prosciutto ham, or wrap each loaf in prosciutto before baking!

Roast Lamb September 7, 2008

I was born in New Zealand, and I love Lamb, mainly because I was raised on the stuff. It makes a great Sunday dinner because it’s quick and easy to roast, and doesn’t require you to make a gravy for it. This recipe was adapted from one by Jamie Oliver.

Ingredients:
1 leg of New Zealand lamb, thawed
50 grams proschutto ham
Fresh rosemary
Salt
Pepper

1. Take your lamb, and make 10 to 12 thumb sized slits in the leg.
2. Take short pieces of rosemary about 1 to 2 cm long, and wrap them in chunks of ham, making little plugs of pure goodness.
3. Plug those holes! Gross!!
4. Sprinkle the lamb with salt and pepper.
5. Seat the lamb at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then drop the temperature to 350 and roast for 20 minutes a pound. Your meat thermometer should read 150 in the thickest part of the leg to get a leg that has a nice mix of well done to medium rare meat.
6. Devour!! Graham and Adam got roast lamb with Boursin mashed potatoes, and I slivered up some lamb onto a raw spinach and cabbage salad. It was really, really good!!