If you are traveling in Kauai with a toddler, definitely pick a resort that has CHICKENS! and ROOSTERS! on the property. Serious delight-makers. Every day so far has involved much CHASING. Our vacation sound scape is a combination of crashing waves and cockadoodledoos.
We never did make it to the swanky organic market. 45 minute drive seemed just too much trouble. So we opted to stock up at the Big Save in nearby Koloa. Given my usual shopping digs, this was pretty serious culture shock. Still, I managed to find locally farmed eggs, a dozen in all different colors (white, brown, blue!) and sizes for seven bucks (about what the ones from the chi-chi farm can cost at the fancy grocery at home). Also picked up some locally-made goat cheeses and a package of organic cheddar. I couldn’t bring myself to purchase any of the options in the processed sliced meats department for our lunches (shudder) so I ended up with a package of raw local pork shoulder chops (Scott said, if it’s from the island, how much can it be factory farmed?) plus canned salmon despite my fear of Bisphenol-A exposure — the most expensive option at that since it was the wild caught, sustainable, coho rather than the light stuff (it’s an illness, I can’t control it, I swear) and a couple of tins of sardines packed in mustard and dill (smaller fish tend to be safer).
My parents and sister think I’m completely nuts, natch. But how nuts am I, when…
So last night, we cooked-in. My dad marinated chicken (not local, not free-range, despite the local overpopulation, because we’re not grab-a-bird-from-the-roadside-and-snap-its-neck kind of people) all day and then cooked it or rather flaming-on-fire-other-people-were-terribly-concerned-barbecued it at the public grills in the courtyard. With baked Molokai sweet potatoes which are a rich deep jewel purple color inside, and iceberg lettuce salad with the most awesome bottled dressing in creation, the locally-distributed Hawaiian Hula brand papaya seed dressing.
It was my job to bake the potatoes and make the salad. I put them in the oven, set it for 400, and washed and tore the lettuce. We put the boy to bed, cleaned up, meditated, etc. My parents and sister showed up at 7:30. The potatoes hadn’t baked AT ALL. Hello electric range in vacation condo that I had no idea how to operate. So then we microwaved them. It’s a testament to the native deliciousness of these deep purple wonders that we all tried as hard as we did to eat as much as we could of them — the soft parts. But there was a lot leftover.
Which brings me back to the canned salmon. Almost.
Scott and I watch cooking shows. My mother hates them because she doesn’t get how you can enjoy watching when you can’t taste what they make. I use them as my ad hoc culinary school. We were fans (in the way that one is a fan of watching train wrecks) of the Next Food Network Star, so I had not-so-long-ago TiVo’d and tried to watch the show made by the winner of last season. Ten-Dollar Dinners with Melissa d’Arabian. She was making, yep, salmon cakes with canned wild salmon and potato.
Sadly, I only watched half the episode, so I had to improvise. Fortunately, I’m a pretty good improviser. Of course, now that I’m sitting here writing about it, I realize I could have looked the recipe up online, which I will do now, so that my mistakes don’t have to be your mistakes.
My version:
1 large (14 ounce) can wild-caught salmon, drained and large bones removed
2 free range eggs (one extra large, one small)
1 T low-fat lemonaise (cost about the same as best foods/kraft at the Big Save so I went for it instead)
1 molokai sweet potato, microwaved then steamed till soft and mashed, then cooled
dash of half-and-half
salt and pepper
2 slices wheat toast, toasted and torn into tiny pieces to emulate bread-crumbs, for coating
extra virgin olive oil for frying
Mix all ingredients except wheat toast in a bowl. Shape into four large patties. Coat with bread crumbs.
Heat about 1/2 to 1 inch deep amount of oil in a large skillet. You would be wise to choose an oil other than organic extra virgin but since we only bought one kind at the big save, and amazingly the price difference between organic and regular was only a few pennies, you get my drift.
Fry the patties a few minutes on each side, till crisp and brown. Serve with green salad and a nice slathering of lemonaise on top. The sweet potatoes probably didn’t really add or take away vs. regular potatoes. Maybe the sweet flavor was a little odd in the overall, but we all enjoyed the cakes, Jonah especially; and the purple color was just too fabulous.
Upon reviewing her version today, I realize I could have done a bit more to emulate the original. My parents do have bacon in their fridge, though Oscar Meyer is not my first choice brand. And I could have sauteed garlic, since I don’t currently have any onions around. Oh well.
Here is Melissa d’Arabian’s version, from the Food Network website:
2 strips bacon, cooked until crispy, crumbled, bacon fat reserved
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 egg
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 lemon, zested
1 (14-ounce) can wild salmon, checked for large bones
1 baked or boiled russet potato, peeled, and fluffed with a fork
1/4 cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Heat 1 tablespoon of the reserved bacon fat in a small saute pan over low heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent. Cool the onions for a bit.
Mix the bacon, onion, egg, mayonnaise, mustard, sugar, and lemon zest in a bowl. Add the salmon and potato, mixing gently after each addition. Form the mixture into 12 small patties. In a shallow dish, combine the bread crumbs, Parmesan, and pepper, to taste. Coat the patties in the bread crumb topping. Heat 1/4 cup of the oil in a large saute pan over medium heat, and cook the salmon cakes in batches until golden, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Add more oil, as necessary. Arrange on a serving platter and serve.
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Notably enough, this recipe, either version, is not unlike the beloved Salmon Quiche of my childhood.