My Motto

May the muffin rise to greet you, may your friends be always at your door, and until we meet again, warm a single-malt in the palm of your hand and make something homemade for someone you love.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Salmon Cakes with Garlic Chili Aioli

"When you feel neglected, think of the female salmon, who lays 3,000,000 eggs but no one remembers her on Mother's Day."
~Sam Ewing

Three weeks ago, I had some company for one of our favorite dinners, salmon steaks with teriyaki barbeque glaze.  A couple people couldn't make it, therefore, at the end of the night I had two beautiful, one-inch thick salmon steaks.  I hate to waste anything these days, so this recipe for salmon cakes immediately sprang to mind.  I remembered seeing it on the wonderful blog, One Perfect Bite in July.  Mary, the blog author, has great recipes and is extremely prolific.  I don't know how she does it!  The garlic chili aioli sauce is my own recipe that I threw together that night just to go with the cakes and it was so good, I had to write it down.
Crab cakes are something I love to order in a good restaurant, but I've never had salmon cakes before.    Put aside all preconceived notions (I had bad ones).  These were amazing.  There were only two things I did differently from Mary's recipe.  One was that I used salmon steaks that had been grilled (instead of poached) and refrigerated overnight.  The other was to coat the patty in bread crumbs before pan-searing them.  If you do this, be sure to use homemade or plain panko breadcrumbs.  The batter for these is very wet, and it's supposed to be.  They firm up as you cook them. The key is always to use as little breadcrumbs in the batter as possible, so don't be tempted to add more.   The salmon should be the star.  I stirred them very, very gently so there would be big flakes in them and they came out, well, I know I said this before, but amazing.  Everybody loved them, and the garlic chili aioli, too.  After dinner, the Mister exclaimed they were better than crab cakes and said "note to self: BUY EXCESS SALMON."  Last week, a few days before we lost power, we did just that.  Only this time we grilled the salmon specifically so we could have these the next night.  That's how good they are.  Definitely NOT leftovers....way too good for that!!!  But if find yourself with extra salmon...hey...treat yourself.  You deserve it.
Please visit Mary's blog here for the recipe for salmon cakes.
Here is my recipe for garlic chili aioli:

Garlic Chili Aioli
a recipe by Margaret Murphy Tripp

1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cloves of garlic, minced or run through press
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic chili sauce (found in the asian food aisle)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
salt and pepper to taste

Stir together all ingredients in a bowl.  Serve with salmon cakes, crab cakes or in place of mayo on a sandwich.  Heck, live on the edge...dip your fries in it.

11 comments:

Meeling said...

That aioli looks and sounds fab!!!

Found you through foodbuzz!!

Mary Bergfeld said...

Your version of the salmon cakes is absolutely wonderful. Thanks so much for the mention. It really is appreciated. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

Margaret Murphy Tripp said...

@Meeling: Thanks! Your blog looks great...I'll have time to check it out further today since I have the day off. So nice of you to stop by!

@Mary: You're so welcome. It's a great recipe, thank you. Have a wonderful holiday.

Amy said...

Hi Margaret,

You are not going to believe this but I had salmon for the first time about a month ago and LOVED it! I might just have to try this recipe, it sounds and looks delicious!!!

Take care, Amy

T and Tea Cake said...

The quote is ace! So acrimonious! ;)
Your aioli sounds great too. Delicious and easily to whip up last minute!

Take care,
Tobias

TinaRBK said...

This aioli does look like just the thing to pair with salmon cakes. Your picture is making me hungry. I am off to the store this morning, I will be looking for some salmon! Have a great labor day.

Margaret Murphy Tripp said...

@ Amy,
Ha! That's funny...glad you liked the salmon and thanks, I hope you get to try these. Enjoy the holiday!

@T and T: Yes, that quote made me LOL!

@Tina: Oh, I hope you get to make them. I love when folks actually try the recipes! Enjoy your holiday too. Thanks for stopping by.

Michelle Kang said...

Salmon cakes! My mom loves crab cakes, and I love salmon. I think there may be something here ;)

Margaret Murphy Tripp said...

@Cinn B: I concur! Give 'em a try, you'll be hooked :-)

Unknown said...

This looks delicious!! Can't wait to try it!!
..but I want to make it sweet so its a sweet and spicy flavor aioli, would you recommend using brown sugar or honey in the mixture? And id so, how much?
Thank you! :)

Margaret Murphy Tripp said...

You could try either of those, or look up a recipe for sweet and spicy chili sauce that is not mayo based. They usually have that to go with coconut shrimp, so it would be easy to find. Good luck!