Crack Dip Good

Somehow, the crack dip mix made it past the drug sniffing dogs at the U.S. border and into my kitchen. (Thanks, Jody!) Therefore, I too can attest to the addictive quality of the extraordinary crack dip. I made a half serving and had mine with Vienna Crusty rolls, although I find it also works well when eaten off one's fingers or off the back of the knife. You know, for those times when you're not willing to wait until it's spread on the bread.

This was the appetizer in my Two-Course-Meal! The main dish was Swordfish with the Tyee fish rub and some peas. This was excellent. I'm really enjoying the Tyee fish rub. It's such a distinctive flavor.

Apple Tuna Sandwich

No picture of this one but you'll have to take my word that it was really pretty. I've just started flipping through the Epicure A Healthier You kit and I've really wanted to try some of the recipes out of the cookbook included. This makes 4 sandwiches, I took two to Meag, I had one and there's enough for another sandwich in the fridge.

2 x 120g cans of tuna
1 apple, cored and diced
1/3 c low-fat plain yoghurt
1 Tbsp VE Guacamole Dip Mix
8 slices of whole-grain bread (I used rye)
lettuce

Fluff tuna with a fork in a medium mixing bowl. Add the apple, yoghurt and Guacamole Mix and stir it together. Divide it among the bread, add some lettuce and you're done.

I thought it could have used a little more yoghurt but the flavour was really good.

Ginger Salmon

I've had a couple of false starts with this recipe. I started to make it the first time and realized that I had thrown out my marmalade (I had vague memories of it crystalizing). The next time that I purchased salmon, I put the Tyee Fish Rub on it and then found the marmalade. This time I managed to get everything in alignment and I went ahead. I'll put the original recipe down and then tell you what Epicure-y substitutions that I made.

2 lb salmon fillet, skin removed
3/4 c orange marmalade
1/4 c sliced green onion (I substituted a few T of 3 Onion)
2 t dry white wine
1 t grated fresh ginger
1 t dijon mustard
1/2 t minced garlic (I substituted 1 t of Malay Seasoning for the garlic & cayenne)
1/4 t cayenne
1/8 t Epicure 5 Spice
3 T sliced, toasted almonds

Thaw the fish if frozen and rinse. Pat dry with paper towel and measure the thickest part. Sprinkle it with salt and pepper and place in a shallow pan. Mix all of the other ingredients (except for the almonds) and spoon it over the fish. Bake at 450F for 4-6 minutes per 1/2" thickness or till it flakes easily with a fork. Transfer the fish and sauce to a serving dish with a rim. Sprinkle the fish with the almonds.

It was really tasty and the marmalade softened out with a little bit of heat from the spices. I will definitely make this again but I think I'll spoon a little less sauce on each piece, I only had about a pound of fish this time around and I used the full recipe's worth of sauce. Still pretty good with rice and steamed veg.

Tzatziki Salmon

Okay, here it is - my first post!

Tzatziki Salmon

Mix 1 Tbsp margarine with 1 Tbsp white flour in a glass measuring cup.
Heat in microwave until melted, stir and heat again to cook a little.
Add 1 cup milk, and 1 tsp Epicure Tzaziki dip mix, and salt to taste (not a lot). Stir well and nuke again for about 2 minutes, whisking from time to time.
When it has thickened, almost boiling, remove and pour over salmon fillets in a glass baking dish.
Microwave for ten minutes if thawed, 20 if frozen, or bake in a 400F oven a similar amount of time.
Serve with rice (parboiled, with 1/2 tsp of Louisiana Hot'n'Spicy dip mix) and steamed broccoli.

A family favourite.

Pesto Fish

This is a pretty simple recipe that I found online.

* 1 lb.Cod
* 1/4 cup Mayonnaise
* 2 Tbsp Pesto
* Parmesan Cheese

Mix pesto and mayonnaise together and spread on top of fish. Sprinkle with a little parmesan cheese. Cook at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

I actually ended up with only 1/3 pound of cod, though I forgot to change the other portions, so I ended up with a lot of extra topping. However, by another accident, I ended up cooking the fish for the exact right amount of time, so that was good.

It came out really well, though next time I might just mix some pesto with bread crumbs for the topping.

Salmon Patties

I totally had something else planned to make today but this was a spur of the moment project with Meag. It's also part of another odyssey of mine: to rid my cupboard of cans of salmon. Somehow, I'd accumulated 15 cans of salmon (I swear I don't know how it happened, I don't actually remember buying even 1 can!) so I'm always on the lookout for things using cans of salmon. This recipe used 2 (whoo-hoo)!

650 g floury potatoes, chopped
425 g can red salmon, drained
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley
2 t grated lemon rind
1 egg
5 slices bread, crusts removed
40 g butter
1/4 c olive oil
lemon wedges, to serve
1. Cook the potato in boiling water until very tender. Drain well and mash until smooth.
2. Place the salmon in a large bowl and break up the flesh with a fork, removing any bones and skin. Add the spring onion, parsley, lemon rind, egg and mashed potato Season with salt and pepper and stir well. Shape into rough patties, using about a third of a cup for each patty (Shamefaced Confession: I missed that line when we did this recipe. I looked at the yield for 4 and made 4 monster sized patties. The shamefaced part is that I was actually going to bitch about this in the post. I stand corrected).
3. Chop the bread in a food processor until it forms fine crumbs. Gently roll the patties in the breadcrumbs and neaten the shape. Press the breadcrumbs firmly onto the patties with your fingertips to coat well.
4. Heat the butter and oil in a large frying pan. When the butter is foaming, add the patties and cook each side for 3-5 minutes, or until golden and browned. Drain on paper towels. Serve with lemon wedges.

The outside was really nice and crispy and gives me a lot of hope for this recipe if followed correctly. Even huge they weren't that bad, the inside was warm squishy potato and the outside was crispy so life was still pretty good even if I had just blown the fuses on my stove in a bright, blue flash. Life was still pretty good.

Tartare Sauce

This was Meag's contribution to the meal and IMHO the high point. It's also from her cheapo cookbook. The funny part was when she was reading the ingredient list to me to check if we had everything. We did. It was just funny for some reason and we were both kind of giggling about it. I love my kitchen, even when I hate it.

1 1/2 c mayo
1 T finely chopped onion (we substituted an equal amount of Epicure 3 Onion)
1 t lemon juice
1 T chopped gherkins
1 t chopped capers
1/4 t Dijon mustard
1 T finely chopped parsley

Mix it all together and season with salt and white pepper.

I think it was the gherkins. Gherkins are inherently funny.

Cedar Plank Salmon and Hot Fudge Monday

Our fish was a little further along in the process than the one in the picture but all of the pictures of cedar plank salmon were boring. So I've never tried this method of cooking fish before and I bought the Tyee Fish Rub without tasting it first. I mixed some into about a 1/4 cup of olive oil until it was sort of somewhere in between sauce and paste. I soaked the planks in a big bowl in my bathtub for about 6 hours then I rubbed a little oil over them, put the salmon down and covered them with paste (and doesn't that sound appetizing?) Threw them into the oven at 325 F (found that number on the net, I didn't know if it was supposed to be a really hot over or not) for about 25 minutes.

After about 10 minutes, Meag came out and predicted that we would soon be hearing from the smoke detector. I didn't know that cedar planks, as they dry in the over, warp upwards into an arch (as opposed to warping downward into a bowl). This meant that, as the fish cooked and released some of the juices with the olive oil mixed in (it's not always attractive but it's really tasty), they were sliding down the arch and dropping to the superhot oven floor. So, note to self: next time you're cooking cedar plank salmon, put a cookie sheet on the rack below.

We never did hear from the smoke detector and if someone can explain to me why I can fill the entire room with acrid woodsmoke it doesn't do a damn thing yet when Meag is boiling water for pasta, we're having to fan it with towels every five minutes, I will bake them their own Triple Ginger Pound Cake.

To console myself over all of the smoke (and because I was having a chocolate jones) I made Hot Fudge Monday. You know those Dr. Oetker Cake & Sauce packages, they come in chocolate, apple, lemon, caramel, etc? It's just like that only you know what's going into it (not that I don't trust Dr. Oetker, he invented baking powder, you know)

Hot Fudge Monday (6 servings)

Cake: 1 cup flour
3/4 cup unpacked brown sugar
1 1/2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
2 t baking powder (thank you Dr. Oetker!)
1/4 t salt
1/2 cup skim milk
2 T vegetable oil

Sauce: 1 cup unpacked brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/4 cups boiling water

Prepare the cake batter, the original recipe does the separate dry and wet mixing but I just threw them all in a bowl and it worked out just fine. Spread batter evenly in an ungreased 8"x8" baking pan (I've only tried it in pyrex).

Mix the brown sugar and cocoa for the sauce together and sprinkle them evenly over the top of the cake batter. Pour the boiling water gently over the top but don't stir it in (very important!). Bake @ 350 F for 40-45 minutes and then let it stand for about 5 minutes before serving warm. Spoon the sauce from the bottom of the pan over the individual servings of cake. (Only 17% fat)

Oh, yeah. The salmon was f---ing amazing. I ate my first piece of it while standing and dishing the food out onto the plates. It was that good.