Back in the Swing-7/16/09

Here's a picture to prove we really did leave Georgia. This is us, Richard, Eyrleigh, and I, at Oriole Park in Baltimore. We arrived back in Georgia on Monday, July 13th but it took me a few days to get back in the swing. By Thursday, I was ready to start on the Gourmet recipes for July. I won't finish every one. I don't boil live lobsters so that eliminates 2 recipes right there. But I will try to do as many as I can and I started off with the Summer Salmon Cakes with Zucchini Fennel Slaw on page 56.
I've never felt very confident with "cakes" or patties of meat held together with some binding ingredients. Getting the oil hot enough but not too hot is the first tricky thing. If the oil is hot enough, the patties don't hold together right away and can start to break apart. If the oil gets too hot, the patties get too brown before they are cooked through. These patties were no easier and as the picture shows, I got the oil a little too hot. The patties were good though and the salmon was cooked well. The Zucchini Fennel Slaw was a unique twist on slaw but I found it a bit heavy on sauce and again the anise flavor was a bit like having licorice flavor in your slaw. Good, but a bit odd. That's one recipe, let's see how many more I can finish in the two weeks left in July.


Summer Salmon Cakes with Zucchini Fennel Slaw- B-

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hambrick's-Party of Four!-8/1/11

Image
On August 24th of last year, I wrote a innocuous little post on this blog about my husband being a good sport about my creative culinary exploits.  And then....nothing....for over 11 months.  What happened, you may ask?  Well, the picture at left tells a rather significant part of the story but not the whole thing so I'll try to summarize here in case another 11 months go by before I post again.  (Okay, I will seriously try not to do that!)  The year 2010 started off on the wrong foot with the loss of our fourth pregnancy (Thankfully, pregnancy #2 had resulted in Eyrleigh!) at 18 weeks.  We were still reeling from the devastation of that event when my only sibling, my brother Ben, committed suicide at the end of February.  Then in April, Richard's company hired a new CEO and things professionally went south from there for him.  Since a blog is a public format and could therefor be accessed by anyone, including this individual, let me suf...
Read more

Can you say "Tsatsiki"?- 3/12/09

Image
Ok , now is the time for honesty. How many of you have been at a restaurant, wanted to order something but hesitated because you didn't want the servers all laughing at you in the back about how badly you butchered the name of your wine or dish? I live in the South and people order " Gy -rows" at the Great Wraps. In fact, I just looked it up on the Merriam Online Dictionary and that is exactly what they said. I always thought the word was "he-rows" and have ordered them like that for years. Now imagine that with " Tsatsiki "? I tried to look that word up on the online dictionary and you know what is suggested instead? Testicles. Yep, could entertain a few servers for years with that one! Can you picture it? "That lady ordered Chicken Gyros with Cucumber Salsa and Testicles!" Ok , seriously, how do you say " Tsatsiki "? Do you just drop the t, like sat- siki ? Or does the ts make some other sound that is not common in English? But l...
Read more

After I Learn Italian-3/4/10

Image
Cooking magazines love to use fancy names for recipes to make them sound more authentic and delicious. Tonight I made Buccatini all" Amatriciana , basically Italian for tubular pasta with bacon and tomato sauce. It sounds much fancier in Italian. I think everything sounds fancier in Italian. I need to learn Italian or at least go to Italy to hear it spoken for awhile. How I missed the entire country when I backpacked through Europe is beyond me. I think Eyrleigh and Richard would really love to go there too. Though Buccatini all'Amatriciana sounds complicated, it wasn't and the use of store-bought tomato sauce made it downright simple. I replaced the pancetta with low-sodium bacon and realized I had no more Romano cheese so I used Manchego . It worked. The flavor added to the store-bought sauce was an improvement. I may not duplicate this recipe exactly again but this recipe reinforced that anything can be added to a commercial sauce to give it an extra dimension. ...
Read more