Salmon Burgers with Caesar Slaw

By Paul Briand

If you watch Rachael Ray on the Food Channel or on her own syndicated show, you know that she can whip up a meal in 30 minutes or less. She's built a cooking career on her 30-minute meals, in fact.

So I decided this week to put Ray to the test with her recipe for Salmon Burgers with Caesar Slaw.

From start to finish, I had this meal on the table in 45 minutes. To be fair, however, I probably could have done it in the prescribed 30 minutes, but while I was doing the salmon burgers and slaw, my son David who was visiting for a couple of days was doing a side dish of homemade mac and cheese. So there was conversation. And there was beer.

But the end result was a tasty meal created with only a moderate amount of effort.

A couple of notes on the recipe. Ray calls for a 14-ounce can of salmon. I don't like canned salmon, so instead I used two 12-ounce pouches of salmon.

Ingredients
2 (12-ounce) pouches of salmon
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
Handful parsley leaves, finely chopped
2 lemons, zested and juiced, divided
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs, 3 generous handfuls
Salt and pepper
4 anchovies, finely chopped, optional
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, eyeball it
2 tablespoons plus 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
Couple handfuls grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Romano
2 hearts romaine lettuce, shredded
1 head radicchio, shredded

Directions
1. In a bowl with the salmon, add egg whites, parsley, the zest and juice of 1 lemon, 2/3 of the total amount of chopped garlic, the bread crumbs and lots of black pepper and a little salt. Mix together and form 4 large patties or 8 mini patties;
2. To a salad bowl add the remaining zest and lemon juice, remaining garlic, chopped anchovies, Dijon mustard, and Worcestershire;
3. Whisk in about 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil and cheese. Add lots of black pepper, no salt;
4. Add shredded lettuces to the bowl and toss to coat evenly. Now, season the slaw with salt to taste, if necessary;
5. Preheat 2 tablespoons, of extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan, in a nonstick skillet over medium to medium high heat. Cook salmon patties 2 to 3 minutes on each side for mini patties, 4 minutes on each side for large patties;
6. Serve salmon patties atop Caesar Slaw.

Chinese Slaw

By Paul Briand

The trick to this recipe isn't the slaw as much as the dressing.

The slaw can be adapted in a number of ways in terms of ingredients. You can add some diced chicken or diced beef or pork.

As for the dressing, you can make it tart or sweet, spicy hot or neutral. I tried to create a dressing that had a hint of each.

Ingredients
For the slaw:
10 ounce package of ready-made confetti slaw
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/2 cup of sugar snap peas
1/2 cup of julienne carrots
Handful of chow mein noodles
1 1/2 cups of diced chicken (or beef or pork)
For the dressing:
1/3 cup of rice wine vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
1/3 cup of canola oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
Squirt of Dijon mustard
Dash of Tabasco (optional)

Directions
1. In a large bowl, place the slaw, green onion, sugar snap peas, carrots and chicken;
2. Dress the salad with the dressing and give it a good toss, mixing ingredients;
3. Top with the handful of chow mein noodles and serve.

Catfish Lettuce Wraps

By Paul Briand

I had the pleasure of preparing this meal with the help of my son David, who was just back from a two-month, 13,000 mile cross country road trip.

He can hold his own in the kitchen. Often during his college years and even during the road trip, he was the de facto cook, and he takes a lot of pleasure in it.

We tackled a Catfish Lettuce Wrap recipe that I found in the grocery store.

My wife and stepdaughter were a bit wary of the catfish. Knowing what a catfish looks like doesn't exactly instill a lot of confidence in the taste if you've never had it before. So David and I followed a suggestion in the recipe and soaked the fillets for about an hour in 2 cups of water with 1 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt to remove some of the so-called "natural, earthy" flavor from the fish.

Also, rather than keep the vegetable and bean ingredients separate, as given in the recipe, David made a slaw/salsa out of all of it, which was great both as a topping for the fish and as a separate side dish.

Ingredients
4 catfish fillets, about 6 ounces each
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 head iceberg lettuce or two heads Bibb lettuce (I had to substitute with Romaine lettuce)
2 cups cherry tomatoes, diced
1 can black beans, rinsed and dried
1 cup purple cabbage mix
1 ripe avocado, pitted, peeled and diced
2 limes, juiced
Salsa and sour cream, option
Red pepper flakes to taste
Cilantro to taste

Directions
1. Season the dried fillets with pepper, salt (always optional) and red pepper flakes (again optional);
2. Cook to flakiness on a grill or large frying pan coated with olive oil, spritz with lime;
3. In the meantime, combine the tomatoes, black beans, cabbage mix and avocado into mixing bowl and give a big stir, adding lime juice and cilantro, creating a hefty slaw;
4. Prepare lettuce by cleaning and drying six leaves;
5. Once the fish is done, transfer to a platter and break apart into chunks;
6. Put lettuce leaves on large platter, and fill each leaf with chunks of catfish, then add a heaping serving of the slaw mixture. Option, top with sour cream and/or salsa and serve.

There was enough going on in the mouth with all these flavors that even with some of the earthiness left in the catfish it was neither powerful enough to dominate nor was it overwhelmed by the toppings.

Teriyaki Marinated Beef Steak

By Paul Briand

Sometimes it's nice to let someone else figure out a dinner menu for you, especially when a hurry-up day doesn't give you much time to think about or even prepare a dinner for four.

Lots of grocers have seen the need to help harried consumers and have come up with prepared or semi-prepared meals. I recently tried one from Hannaford, a large grocery store chain in this part of the country. Hannaford describes these meals as "a cooking show to go: everything you need -- fresh, pre-cut and measured for a fantastic meal you make at home."

Meals are offered to cook four or two, the the store provides handouts listing a two-week menu, so that you can decide on Thursday, for example, you might want the chicken thighs with leeks, olives and orzo, or you might want to wait until Saturday for the Caribbean tilapia with toasted cabo coconut with jicama slaw.

I decided to try the teriyaki marinated beef steak with citrus sesame summer slaw. Indeed everything is self-contained. Ingredients are measured and cut, then bagged or put in a container. Then it's all packaged in a convenient, easy-to-carry cardboard box. Cooking instructions are contained within the label that's taped to the box. Here's a look at what was inside (which you could duplicate on your own):

Ingredients

1 1/2 pound beef loin grilling steak, marinating in a 1/2 cup of teriyaki sauce

12 ounces sliced Chinese cabbage

2 1/2 cups shredded carrots

1 small sliced red onion

4 teaspoons chopped cilantro

2 teaspoons dried ginger

2 teaspoons granted orange peel

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon lime juice

3 ounces wonton crisps

Directions

1) On a preheated grill cook the steak 5 - 8 minutes or until medium rare, transfer to cutting board and let sit 10 minutes. (If cooking under an oven broiler, cook 7 minutes per side or until desired level of doneness.);

2) Place vegetables -- cabbage, carrots and onion -- into a large bowl;

3) Combine ginger, orange peel and sesame oil and mix thoroughly then combine with orange juice and lime juice in a small bowl and mix all together;

4) Pour dressing over vegetables and toss to thoroughly coat the slaw;

5) Thinly slice the steak against the grain;

6) Divide slaw among plates, top with sliced beef and wonton crisps.

The directions go so far as to suggest a complementary wine: a Pinot Noir.

This meal was ready in 20 minutes and was a real time saver given the extent of vegetable and dressing ingredients' preparation that would have been necessary had you done this on your own.

All in all it was very tasty, though I thought it was a little heavy on the red onion. I would have used maybe a half a red onion rather than a whole one.

For more information go to: http://www.hannaford.com/cookingshowtogo.