June is the month of simcha celebrating. Bridal showers, weddings, graduation parties and Father’s Day — all or some find their way to our summer calendars. It’s also the start of the summer season, which means vacations, weekend guests and lots of entertaining. How fortunate for cooks that salmon season coincides with these occasions. Although farm-raised fresh salmon is available to us all year, nothing compares to the taste of a succulent, rosy piece of wild salmon, which, by the way, offers more health benefits than farmed.
Poached salmon is a particularly tasty and easy way to solve feeding weekend guests without the host having to spend all his or her time in the kitchen. A Shabbat dinner of cold poached salmon accompanied by a velvety pale green sauce and steamed vegetables can be prepared early in the day. If you’re lucky enough to still have some cooked salmon left over, crusty, savory Salmon Cakes will serve to make a perfect midweek or Sunday night dinner. Alternately, make them smaller and you have a delightful finger-food canapé to pass around at a party.
Salmon Cakes with Sweet and Spicy Sauce | Serves 6
1 1/2 lbs. cooked salmon, finely flaked
1/2 cup (approximately) mayonnaise
2 Tbs. Dijon mustard
1/3 cupchopped red onion
pinch red pepper sauce
1 cup dry breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
2 Tbs. oil
2 Tbs. butter
In a large bowl combine salmon, mayonnaise, mustard, onion, red pepper sauce and half the bread crumbs. Taste for salt and pepper. Form into patties about 4 inches in diameter. Spread remaining breadcrumbs on a flat plate and coat patties on both sides. Place on a cookie sheet and let chill about 20 minutes.
Heat butter and oil in large skillet. Cook salmon cakes about 4 minutes a side until crispy and golden brown. Serve with sauce.
Sweet Hot Sauce
2 canned jalapeño chilies, seeded and chopped
1 cup mayonnaise
1 Tbs. hot sweet mustard
2 tsp. lemon juice
salt and pepper
In a small bowl combine ingredients. Serve with salmon cakes.
Oven-Poached Salmon with Watercress Sauce | Serves 6
1 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups water
1/8 cup sugar
1 tsp. peppercorns
1 1/2 tsp. coriander seeds
1 tsp. mustard seeds
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 onion, sliced
six 1-inch-thick salmon steaks
dill sprigs for garnish
1 lemon slice for garnish
In a saucepan combine the wine, water, sugar, peppercorns, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, salt and onion, and simmer for 15 minutes. Let cool to room temperature. Arrange the steaks in a large buttered shallow baking pan, ladle the wine mixture around them and poach the steaks, covered with a buttered piece of foil in a preheated 375-degree oven for 30 minutes.
Let the steaks cool, venting the foil, and chill them in the poaching liquid, covered, for at least 6 hours or overnight.
Discard bones from the salmon, brush steaks with some poaching liquid, and arrange on a platter. Garnish with dill sprigs and lemon slice and serve with Watercress Sauce.
Watercress Sauce | Makes about 11/2 cups
1 1/4 cups mayonnaise
1/2 cup finely chopped watercress leaves
1 Tbs. coarse-grained Dijon mustard
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
Combine all ingredients.
Louise Fiszer is a Palo Alto cooking teacher, author and the co-author of “Jewish Holiday Cooking.” Her columns alternate with those of Rebecca Ets-Hokin. Questions and recipe ideas can be sent to j. or to [email protected].