Tuna Patties

Norene Gilletz's  The Pleasures of Your Processor is only one of the "Norene" cookbooks in my collection.  I've said it before - I raised my kids on her recipes and I can't remember ever having a fail. Her recipes are easy to follow and easy to execute (not the killing kind).

The hardest part of this whole recipe is opening the cans of tuna.  For meatless Mondays this is a treat and also approved by "baba" who has sworn off meat.  I've actually heard alot of my contemporaries tell me their parents have more difficulties digesting meat.  Try these as an alternative and the great thing is that they're freezer friendly.


1 medium onion, halved
2 - 7 oz tins tuna, drained
4 eggs
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
oil for frying

Process onions until minced, about 6-8 seconds.  Add remaining ingredients except oil and process until mixed, about 10 seconds.

Shape into patties.  Heat oil to a depth of about 1/8" in a large skillet.  Brown on all sides over medium heat.  Drain well on paper towels.

Yield:  6

Note:  If you want to avoid the oil, prepare in a teflon skillet and a little spray.

Spice Rubbed Roasted Salmon with Lemon Garlic Spinach for Mother's Day at the Cooking Light Supper Club

This month's edition of the Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club is a rather special one for me. We're doing a celebration of Mother's Day. I happen to have the very good fortune of having my mother, who is a holocaust survivor, still around, still sharp as a tack and still telling me what to do.

In some ways I could say that my mom, also known as baba, the babster or bugs baba is the original inspiration for this blog. Food was always a focal point in our home. I'm sure many can relate to this but I've always felt that for someone who went through a period of her life where food was so scarce, having it, respecting it, taking care of it and not wasting it was something my mom always imparted. To this day, she would be horrified to see us throwing food away.

We've captured so many of baba's recipes on this blog by trying to reproduce something that had no real recipe or by having her share her food stories and life in the "old country"

On this Mother's Day, I'd like to share this wonderful recipe for Spice Rubbed Roasted Salmon with Lemon Garlic Spinach

Ingredients

Salmon:
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (2 1/4-pound) skinless salmon fillet
2 cups thinly sliced onion
Cooking spray

Spinach:
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 (6-ounce) packages fresh baby spinach
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Remaining ingredients:
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Lemon wedges (optional)

Preparation
Preheat oven to 400°.
To prepare salmon, combine first 6 ingredients; rub spice mixture evenly over fish.
Place onion in an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.
Place fish on top of onion; bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness.

To prepare spinach, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.
Add garlic to pan; cook 1 minute.
Add half of spinach; cook for 1 minute, stirring frequently.
Add remaining spinach; cook 4 minutes or until wilted, stirring frequently.
Sprinkle spinach mixture with rind and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Stir in juice; remove from heat.
Place salmon on a platter.
Arrange onions and spinach evenly around salmon. Sprinkle salmon with chopped fresh cilantro. Serve with lemon wedges, if desired.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!!  I hope your day makes you feel as special as you are to us.

Maple Grilled Jumbo Shrimp

Dinner parties are generally when we like to wow with an appetizer that intrigues people enough to think about what's coming next. Sometimes one can get a little carried away with the appetizer and find out that it could have been a complete meal in itself.

A friend's birthday party is cause for celebration. This particular friend was turning a big number and we wanted him to feel particularly special on his big day. We picked up some jumbo shrimp. We should have known right? The mere size of these jumbo shrimp could be a full meal. I guess I'm not great at reading the signs.

6 jumbo shrimp
1 8 oz package smoked salmon
1 cup maple syrup



Step 2: Take the individual strips from a small package of smoked salmon and soak them in maple syrup. Use as flavourful a maple syrup as possible.





Step 3: Wrap the shrimp with the soaked smoked salmon



Step 4: Grill shrimp approximately 3-5 minutes per side and serve



Verdict: I initially didn't believe this would be as tasty as it is and that for a second, I was mistaking the smoked salmon for bacon.

Eating Out in San Francisco

My favourite trips are ones where we have access to kitchen facilities.  That's a big part of the reason why we often opt to stay in hostels.  

There's part of me that feels that, as a food blogger (and someone that enjoys food, in general), I should be exploring as many restaurants as possible while travelling.  But, the truth is that I generally prefer cooking my own food.  Without fail, my most memorable meals are ones that use simple, fresh ingredients.

Case in point.  Let me start with my favourite meal while travelling in San Francisco.

This meal was actually from a small cafe in Sausalito.  We took a day trip to Muir Woods, to see some massive Redwoods.  On the way back, we had about an hour in Sausalito to explore.  We didn't know where to go to eat, but took our chances on the Sausalito Bakery & Cafe.

Fresh fruit, fresh Greek salad and a blueberry bread pudding that is to die for!  I think I need to add bread pudding to my list of recipes to try.   

This is the stuff that long-lasting cravings are made of.

I also really enjoyed San Francisco Fish Company's fish and chips at the Ferry Building.  Maybe I'm easily impressed, but I've never been served take out fish and chips with both tartar and fish sauce.  Not to mention that the fish was really fresh.  I'll vote this meal as my 2nd favourite.     

Continuing on, my third favourite meal came from The Grove on Mission Street.  We went for an early breakfast and both liked our food and the energy in the tree-filled space.

I enjoyed my meal at the Sears Fine Food, a San Francisco institution.  It was about as enjoyable as the meal at the Grove.  But, a bill for breakfast that was somewhere in the neighbourhood of $45.00 somehow affects the taste left my mouth.

I don't think they're hurting for customers, though.  This is the lineup out the door as we were leaving the restaurant:

I had the french toast, which was pretty standard.  I wish it included more strawberries on the side.  I think I had 2-3 little bits of strawberry/slice.  

I thought it was pretty funny that when I asked about the extra cost for syrup, the waitress explained that that's just for maple syrup.  She explained that syrup comes with the french toast and that it tastes totally fine and that it's not necessary to get the maple syrup, unless your from Canada.  I didn't know we were so particular about our syrup.     

R got Sears' World Famous 18 Swedish pancakes.    

I was a bit worried that these pancakes might, each, end up being the size of the plate.  But, the proportions turned out to be reasonable, given the number. 

Boudin is a prominent fixture in Fisherman's Wharf.  They have quite the operation going there.  Between a takeaway counter, specialty food shop area, bakery and full service restaurant, it's the kind of place you have to visit at least once.

They're known for their sourdough bread.  I thought it was quite cool to watch the baskets of bread travel around the store.

You can also spend some time watching the bakers making various shaped bread creations.

We also went for dinner at Bistro Boudin, a full service restaurant.  The service was very good, but the meal was mixed.  I order Angel Hair Pasta with Grilled Shrimp.  The menu indicated that it included vine-ripened tomato arrabiatta and garlic.  I liked the tomato sauce.  But it lacked the spiciness you would expect of an arrabiatta sauce.  I also wasn't keen on the spice on the shrimp.  It tasted like a cajun seasoning, which didn't really work with a simple tomato sauce.  After donating my shrimp to R and adding chilli peppers to the tomato sauce, I was content.

R ordered the Sourdough Gnocchi Al Pesto with Lobster.  I didn't really see the appeal in what appears to be a fried chive topping.  R enjoyed his meal, but was quite happy to be given half of my meal because he was still hungry after finishing his.

Near the end of our trip, we were getting tired.  It was raining for two days straight and I really didn't want to figure out three meals a day anymore.  We decided to just go out and find a place to eat, which was a mistake because we ended up getting soaked while walking to the Ferry Building.  We ended up going to Gott's Roadside

I got a grilled cheese sandwich, which is something I've never ordered at a restaurant before.  R is an expert grilled-cheese sandwich maker, so I haven't felt the need to order it elsewhere.  In general, the food was okay.  But, combined with being tired and wet, I just wanted to get back to the hotel, take a warm shower and go to bed.

I had the highest hopes for what turned out to be my least favourite restaurant experience.  Our friends raved about Fang Restaurant before we left for San Francisco.  So, we were eager to the try the place.  We made a reservation for 7:15 and showed up at that time.  We waited for 40 minutes for a table to become available.  I felt like I was in combination of Seinfeld episodes.  What is the point of taking reservations if you can't keep the reservation?

We also knew to expect the owner to come by and inquire about whether we had been at the restaurant before.  Since we hadn't, we knew there was a good chance that the owner would just say "ok, I'll take care of you."  I was pretty leery about this because I had a couple of dishes in mind, but Mr. Fang was gone before I could say anything.

The first dish, which was a pork sandwich, was decent.  But, not something I would have ordered.

The other dishes, a crunchy rice, creamy lobster soup and white fish were dishes that I would never order and didn't enjoy.  But, I guess what annoyed me more than anything is that I had to ask for a glass of water 5 times before someone actually brought one.  The last request was more of a minor freak out where I basically said, "what does a person need to do to get water in here?"  I know, not the best version of me...but I was hungry, disappointed with the food, still adjusting to a time difference (and hence eating at what seemed like 11:30pm) and very thirsty.

I would not go back to this restaurant.

Aside from eating out, we generally picked up food at grocery stores.  We quickly learned that having store membership cards can make a big difference in the price of the products.  This led to kind of an awkward, "we are the worst liars ever" situation.

Basically, we overheard a customer telling other tourists was his Safeway card number was.  When we went to check out, we said we have a membership, but didn't have our card.  So, the cashier said, "just enter your phone number into the typepad."

WHAT?  A phone number?  This was not part of our deception plan.  We explained that we just want to give our Safeway number.  She repeated that we should just enter our phone number.  I'm thinking "LOOK --- I don't know this guy's phone number, I just know his Safeway number."  She could tell we were utterly confused, so she explained that our phone number IS our Safeway number.

Oh...yes...of course.  What was I thinking.

The best part is when the cashier starting calling R this other guy's name: Thor.

Stay tuned for another San Francisco post sharing some of the sites we visited.

Penne in a Spicy Tuna Sauce & Contest Alert

My pasta-making repertoire has become a bit predictable as of late.  So, I was really excited when Aurora contacted me to see if I would be interested in participating in their Recipideo Roundup.  Aurora is a Canadian-based company that sells quality Italian products in Canada, the United States and other countries.

Recipideos are short videos, developed by Aurora, showing how to make easy Italian recipes.  Keep an eye out (or follow the youtube channel) for future recipideos.  January's recipideo was Pasta with Spicy Tuna Sauce.  You can watch the video here:



Aurora kindly sent me a few of the products used in the recipe, so I could try them out myself.

I was particularly impressed with the diced tomatoes.  They have 10 mg of sodium per 1/2 cup, this is far lower than the diced tomatoes in my cupboard (even the ones that claim that no salt is added).

The La Bomba, an antipasto spread, is something that I would likely never have noticed on my own (I'm generally a creature of habit who sticks to my staples when shopping).  But I was pleasantly surprised by the nice spice it added to the dish and plan to incorporate it in future dishes.

I included about two tablespoons of the La Bomba in the recipe.  But, since we like our food spicy, I'll probably add even more next time.  I think R also has plans to add some to his special sandwich.

The dish has an unexpected depth to it.  Maybe this came from adding strained tomato.  It was similar  to the depth of flavour that comes from adding a wine reduction to your tomato sauce.

Definitely a winning dish!

But here's the exciting part...

Aurora has offered to send one of our readers the six ingredients you see, below:

+

Here's how to participate:

Go check out the Aurora catalogue and then leave a comment here, before Sunday, January 29th at midnight (EST).  In the comment, let me know which product most interests you.  After doing this, I will put your name in a draw to win the prize.

You can also have your name added to the draw a second time by tweeting the following information:

Enter to win specialty Italian food at http://tinyurl.com/7p26zrv @AuroraImporting @EqualOppKitchen

(you can personalize the tweet, if you'd like)

One more detail:

This contest is open to those living in Canada and the United States.  However, please be aware that if you are located in the US, you will be responsible for covering the cost of border tariffs.

Alaska - 2nd Stop on the Culinary Tour

Welcome to Alaska: Stop #2 on the Foodalogue Final Culinary Tour




If someone were to ask you what you know about Alaska, what do you think you might say? I'll bet that most might answer Sarah Palin since she most certainly created awareness of her state both politically and now in her t.v. series. I know that when I think of Alaska the first thing that comes to mind is a gorgeous dog called the Alaskan Malamute. Originally wolf like sled dogs used for getting from one place to another, they're still used that way as well as domestic pets and an active sport called "mushing". They're pretty amazing dogs.



A little more research..... what about the Alaskan culinary scene. Originally I thought we'd be making dishes out of blubber and reindeer and knew it would be a huge challenge indeed. I was so wrong. Alaska is well known for it's seafood. Now that I think more about it, doesn't it make absolute sense there would be an abundance of seafood? I'm sure everyone knows about the delicate fish called Arctic Char. They do also have recipes for reindeer but I just kept having these visions of Santa missing one and I just wiped it out of my mind immediately.

I saw a local chef's recipe for salmon and pea puree - hmmm, not bad. Then I thought, I'll do a takeoff on one dish and make it my own. Poached salmon with spinach was born.

2 single servings of wild salmon
1 cup chicken boullion (a package plus a cup of water mixed together) - I used a product called Herbox that has no sodium
1/2 package fresh or frozen spinach
2 stems fresh thyme
juice of 1/2 fresh lemon
1/4 tsp pepper
grey salt to taste



I poached both the spinach and the salmon in the chicken broth for about 10 minutes
Drain and plate the spinach; top with salmon
Finish with fresh thyme, splash of lemon, freshly ground pepper and top with grey finishing salt.