Salmon Cakes

Salmon Cakes with Gingered Bok Choy

Once upon a time, a long time ago... I HATED Salmon.  The dreaded Salmon-loaf from my childhood still haunts my dreams.  Ever since I moved to the Northwest my feelings for this beautiful fish have evolved.  It is now one of my favorite fish to prepare and to eat.  I love the intense flavor and oily but flaky texture.  When it's done right, Salmon is divine.

I recently acquired a 4.5 pound salmon through a guy who knows a guy...  Now what is a single guy to do with an entire salmon?  I've been trying to practice breaking down fish and got 4 good steaks, two sizeable fillets, and a fair amount of trimmings.  One of the fillets is well underway to becoming Gravlax.  These "cakes" were made from the trimmings of my salmon filet practice.

I chop the salmon fine with my chef knife, then add rolled oats, teriyaki sauce, cilantro, fresh ginger, ground black pepper and the white of one egg to form essentially the salmon equivalent of meatloaf.  Proportions are hard to describe as I did this all by feel and tasting.  I used a ring-mold to form the patties into consistent shapes on parchment, then refrigerated them before cooking to help them set.  Cooking was a breeze... In a large no-stick skillet over medium heat in hot canola oil each patty took about 2 min. a side to brown nicely.  I used two cakes per serving and set them into a tower with a layer of Jasmine rice and topped it all off with some pickled radish and cucumber.

These could make good "burgers" too.

Flax and Sesame crusted seard Ahi

Ingredients:

~~~Crust:

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp coriander seeds

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground paprika

1/4 tsp black pepper corns

3 tbsp flax seeds (toasted lightly)

3 tbsp sesame seeds (toasted lightly)

~~~Finish

(2) 4-5 oz. Ahi steaks 

Canola oil

Method:

1. Crust: Place salt, coriander, cumin, paprika, and black pepper in a mortar and grind with pestle til ground fine.  Evenly mix in flax and sesame seeds and ransfer mixture to a shallow bowl.
2. Prepare tuna: Cut each steak into 3 triangular shaped pieces, wherever possible keeping them all approximately the same mass.  On a small plate, add a small pool of Canola oil.  Dip the perimeters of the tuna in oil and then set in the seeds to coat three sides, leaving the top and bottom of the stake dry.
3. Sear: Heat a sateuse over med-hi heat.  Add enough oil to coat the surface of the pan.  Add pieses of tuna to pan one at a time, setting on the crust sides.  Slightly agitate the pan as pieces are added to prevent sticking.  Saute for 2 min, rotate each piece to the next side.  Repeat sear/saute until all sides are cooked and fish is medium-rare.  Ahi should still be pink in the very center. Serve.

• Makes enough "crust" for about 2 Ahi steaks,