Foodies Anonymous

Today I felt like having a burger of some kind, but I didn’t want anything heavy. After rummaging through the freezer, I found a bag of frozen salmon fillets, and I knew what to do. I remembered a tasty recipe from the Gourmet Cookbook that I tried several years ago, and used what I had in the kitchen. The original recipe calls for scallions, which I didn’t have on hand. Instead I used about 5 very large chives that I picked from my garden. The taste is very similar, so you can use either one depending on what you have in your fridge, or if you prefer the smaller doses of oniony goodness that chives provide.

Serves: 2 – 4

Salmon Burger with Ginger and Spinach

Ingredients:

1 lb salmon fillets

2 cups baby spinach

3 green onions (or an equivalent handful of chives)

1 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and grated

1 egg white

1 tbsp soy sauce

Kosher salt and ground black pepper, to taste (or 1/4 tsp if you don’t trust yourself)

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method:

1. Cut the salmon fillets into small dice, approximately 1/4″ cubes. This is the most time consuming part of this recipe, but your patience will be rewarded with a nice texture for the patties. If you try to mince it quickly or run it through a food processor, you’ll get something resembling a paste, instead of the lightly bound patties that will result. If you are unsure of how to do this, all you need to do is cut the fillets in half lengthwise, then cut into thin strips (like the size of french fries). From there, cut the strips into small cubes.

2. Next, cut the veggies. The spinach will be mixed in the patties, so a rough chop will do. If you’re not sure how small to go, I suggest treating it like cilantro (about nickel sized). Dice the onions (both white and green parts) into pieces around the same size as the salmon.

3. The final prep work will be grating the ginger (easy enough) and to beat the egg white with the soy sauce. You’ll probably want to heat your favorite 12″ non-stick skillet over medium heat about now. On to the show!

4. In a bowl, combine the salmon, spinach, onion, ginger, salt and pepper. Then mix in the egg white until it’s nice and sticky.

5. Once the oil is sufficiently hot in the pan (it should spread quickly on the bottom but not yet smoke), form a patty in your hand about a half inch thick and gently place (or plop) it into the pan. You’ll notice that it’s pretty loose, but that’s okay! This isn’t ground meat, so you just treat it delicately and pat it together with the spatula if some pieces fall away. I suggest cooking only 2 patties at a time because you want room to move around in the pan, plus you don’t want the oil to cool too much. Flip the patty over once, and cook a total of 6-7 minutes.

6. Place the cooked patties on a paper towel cook the next batch. These burgers are pretty flavorful on their own. I opted for a whole wheat bun and sliced roma tomatoes for garnish. You can also use pickled ginger as a condiment. Or maybe wasabi mayo would be good too?? Hmm I think I’ll try that next time!

Enjoy!