Last night was a fun night of watching movies, playing Twister and cooking together. Claire wrangled asparagus and whipped up sauce while I threw together some salmon cakes to die for. Luke helped immensely by tasting all the ingredients along the way.
Among the indispensable things in my kitchen are my Moosewood cookbooks. Moosewood Restaurant is located in Ithaca, New York and is known for its vegetarian menu. Long before I was interested in vegetarian cooking, I fell in love with these cookbooks. I have two – New Favorites, and Simple Suppers. They are both amazing. Creative yet approachable recipes that are absolutely delicious. One of my favorite recipes is their Salmon Cakes. I’ve never seen a recipe for these that had mashed potatoes and other veggies in it and they are SO GOOD! When the kids were younger, they were sometimes iffy about liking fish, but they would always eat these. The recipe calls for fresh salmon, which is awesome, but it also works well with canned salmon as a substitute. The sauce is my own invention. I usually make some version of it whenever I make fish or crab cakes to drizzle over the top or dip bites into (or both). Claire named it “Fishy Sauce.” So there you go. These paired up perfectly with simple roasted asparagus and tomatoes.
Salmon Cakes & Roasted Asparagus
Moosewood Salmon Cakes
(from Moosewood Restaurant – New Favorites)
2 1/2 cups diced potatoes
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrots
1 1/2 pounds salmon, cut into pieces
1 egg
1 tbsp. mayo
1 tbsp. dijon mustard
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. fresh herbs (I used parsley)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 cup dry breadcrumbs
lemon wedges
For Fishy Sauce:
1/4 cup mayo
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 tsp. capers
1 tsp. minced red chile
salt & pepper
Put potatoes, onion & carrot in covered sauce pan with water to cover. Bring to boil, then simmer for 10 minutes until veggies are tender. Place fish on top and cook for 7 minutes. Drain. Mash veggies and fish with potato masher. Add egg, mayo, mustard lemon juice, herbs, garlic, salt & pepper, and 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs. Mix thoroughly. Heat olive oil in skillet. Pat & shape mixture into 6 cakes (sometimes more depending on how big you want them). Sprinkle both sides with bread crumbs and cook 4 minutes on one side. Flip and cook 2-3 minutes on other side. Serve with lemon wedges or “fishy sauce.” For sauce, combine all ingredients and stir until smooth.
Roasted Asparagus
Roasted Asparagus & Grape Tomatoes
Spread out asparagus and tomatoes in single layer on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt & pepper and lemon zest (about 1 tsp). Roast at 375˚ for 8-10 minutes.
3hungrymonkeys 
MMMMMM YUMMY!!!!