Salmon Croquettes

Say "salmon croquettes" in my family and you see faces lift, eyes light up, and virtual tails wag, like a dog that has scented a rabbit. Salmon croquettes are one of my mother's specialties and a universal favourite on the supper table. They are also a "company's coming" dish—unusual, attractive, comforting, and delicious.

They are easy to make, but require some time in the fridge to stiffen up, so it's ideal to do most of the preparation earlier in the day (or the night before) so that all you have to do is deep fry them for a few minutes just before serving. And they are frugal, stretching one can of sockeye salmon to feed four people.

I've tweaked it a bit, adding onion, celery, and dill to punch up the flavour a bit, but this is essentially my mother's recipe.

Salmon Croquettes

Serves 4 (2 croquettes each)
Note: Please don't substitute pink salmon for the sockeye. The deep red color and rich flavour of sockey are really needed here.

1 cup (aproximately) canned sockeye salmon (I just use a 213gr tin)
1/2  small or medium onion, very finely minced or grated (optional*)
1/2 stalk celery, very finely minced or grated (optional)
1 teaspoon  lemon juice
1 tablespoon  parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons dill, chopped
1 teaspoon  salt
1/2 teaspoon  pepper
1 pinch cayenne pepper
3/4 cup  oatmeal
2 tablespoons  butter
4 tablespoons  flour
1 cup  milk
2  eggs, beaten
1 cup  bread crumbs

* The original recipe called for 1/8 teaspoon grated onion(!), so Mom opts to omit it and I add more.

1. Drain the salmon and put it in a medium to large bowl. Flake it, crushing any bones with your fingers. (You can remove the bones and skin if you want, but I never do. It's a waste of good calcium and bulk.)
2. Add the minced onion and celery, the oatmeal, and the parsley, dill, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly, then set aside while you make the white sauce.
3. In a small saucepan or in the microwave, heat the milk until little bubbles begin to form. Don't let it boil. The point is to heat it up to minimize lumps in the sauce.
4. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and then add the flour, stirring for a couple of minutes to cook it and get rid of the ray flour taste.
5. Gradually add the heated milk to the roux of butter and flour, whisking all the time. Continue whisking as the sauce thickens and cooks, for about 5 minutes.
6. Add the white sauce to the salmon and mix thoroughly. Cover with cling film and put into the fridge for an hour or two to let the mix stiffen up so it is easier to handle and shape. The stiffer the mixture, the easier it is to roll, shape, and bread.
7. While the salmon mixture chills, whisk the 2 eggs in a bowl and pour a cup of breadcrumbs onto a plate.
8. After the salmon mixture has stiffened, take it out of the fridge and divide the mixture into 8 (more or less) even balls. Oil your hands with some vegetable oil, and roll each ball into a cylinder. 
9. Roll the cylinder in the bread crumbs, then into the beaten eggs, and then in the bread crumbs again. Be gentle, but make sure everything gets a double coat of bread crumbs, including the ends. 
10. Lay the croquettes on a plate and cover with cling film, then put it in the fridge again. 
11. When you are ready to cook the croquettes, remove them from the fridge. Pour a vegetable oil that can withstand high temperatures, such as peanut oil,  in a deep sauce pan or deep fryer (if you're lucky enough to have one) to a depth of about 3 inches. Heat it to 170C (350F).
12. Adding 2-3 croquettes at a time (depending on the size of your pan), fry them for about 3-4 minutes until they have turned golden brown on the outside and are heated through on the inside.
13. Drain on paper towels and then serve. 

Bundt Cakes

I have a new plaything—a lovely bundt cake form from Nordic Ware. It's an American company with a generous variety of such playful, heavy-duty cake pans that I understand the people who like to collect them!

My pan's crisp swirls are tempting me into the new repertoire of bundt cakes, and my colleagues are very grateful. I'm providing two cake recipes here, one for a vegan chocolate cake using a quickbread method, the other for lemon cake using the traditional cake method. Both cakes feature an unusual ingredient—beets in the chocolate cake, white pepper in the lemon cake.

Vegan cakes need something to provide the moisture and tender crumb that eggs contribute to ordinary cakes; fruit or vegetables can help bridge the gap, so I was not surprised to see recipes that involve applesauce or beets. Chocolate cake with beets is something I've known about for years and forms the basis of our family recipe for Black Forest Cake, so a vegan variant is a logical step.

The lemon cake recipe is even more interesting because it calls for 1-2 teaspoons of white pepper. This results in a sophisticated cake that leaves your tongue tingling long after the cake is gone. In fact, you barely even notice the pepper in the first bite or two, and then the tingle begins. I find it enchanting, as did my colleagues.

Lemon Ginger and Pepper Cake

I adapted this recipe from the one that came with the bundt cake form, but based on some internet research, it looks like the original recipe came from  Maida Heatter's Book of Great American Desserts. Although the recipe list contains fresh ginger,  it's flavour is not noticeable. I presume it is there just to give some of that spicy tingle. I reduced the sugar by at least 1/4 cup.

--
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated (1-inch piece)
2 teaspoons finely-grated lemon zest (from 2 lemons)
1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
3 cup sifted flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 teaspoons ground white pepper
1 cup buttermilk
--
Lemon glaze:
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F (180°C).
2. Grease the bundt pan with the margarine and dust with the breadcrumbs (I used paneermeel)., 
3. In a small bowl, mix the lemon juice, grated ginger, and grated lemon zest and set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and white pepper.
5. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy.
6. Add the eggs, one-by-one, beating after every addition.
7. On low speed, add the flour mixture on third at a time, alternating with half of the buttermilk, and ending with the flour, mixing well after each addition.
8. Stir in the lemon-ginger mixture.
9. Spoon into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 75 minutes,  or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
10. While the cake bakes, heat the lemon juice and sugar in a small pan until the sugar is dissolved. 
11. Place a piece of waxed paper under a cooling rack.
12. After the cake has cooled for 10 minutes, turn the cake out onto the cooling rack.
13. Brush the cake with the lemon glaze until all of it is absorbed. 

Note: One of my colleagues found the cake too sweet and too lemony, probably because of this glaze. The rest of us loved it!

Vegan Chocolate Cake with Beets

I adapted this recipe from Epicurious, adding a quarter cup of cocoa powder and reducing the sugar.

--
1 tablespoon of vegetable or soy margarine
2 tablespoons fine breadcrumbs
1/2 cup neutral-tasting oil
1 cups packed dark brown sugar
2 cups puréed cooked (boiled or steamed) red beets (about 3 medium-size beets)
90 grams (nondairy) semi-sweet chocolate
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder (look for aluminum-free)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
2. Grease the bundt pan with the margarine and dust with the breadcrumbs (I used paneermeel).
3. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler.
4. In a large bowl, mix the brown sugar and oil, then add the puréed beets, melted chocolate, and vanilla extract.
5. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. 
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet beet mixture, and stir until just combined.
7. Pour into the prepared bundt pan, and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
8. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning the cake out onto a wire rack. 

I find the shape of my bundt pan so pretty, I don't bother with a glaze, but a white chocolate glaze would also be very attractive. Or just dust with icing sugar when it is cool.

Beets are Best!

This winter I have been reveling in beets, those sweet earthy vegetables with the fabulous color, great flavour, and many uses. I've used them in soups, salads, and cakes. I've grated them, puréed them, quartered and diced them.

You can often buy them already cooked, and even diced, which is handy, but I also buy them raw and roast them.

I especially like them paired with slightly bitter greens like kale or chard. I've served this warm winter salad a couple of times now, and love the colours and flavours.

Warm Winter Salad with Beet Root and Sweet Potato

I adapted this recipe from Discover Kale UK. I've only been able to get Cavolo Nero (black kale) once or twice, but it also works with ordinary kale. In fact, I think any bitter green leafy vegetable could be used. Just adjust the cooking times accordingly. The original recipe calls for a tablespoon of honey, but the vegetables, orange, and vinegar make it sweet enough.


3 fresh medium beets (or aprox. 200 grams)
1 medium sweet potato
300g Cavolo Nero, shredded
1 orange
2 tablespoons walnut oil (or olive oil)
1.5-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (or sweet fruit vinegar, optimally mixed with white wine vinegar)
salt and pepper
100 feta cheese, crumbled

1. Roast the beets and sweet potato until tender in a medium oven. The sweet potato will likely be done after about 25 minutes, but the beets tend to take longer—45-60 minutes, depending on their size.   
2. Once cooled, peel the roasted vegetables and cut into wedges or 1 inch blocks. You can do this up to a day in advance. Just reheat the vegetables in a microwave or at least let them come up to room temperature before using in the salad.
3. While the vegetables are roasting, peel and segment the orange, freeing the segments from their skin, if possible. (It never is for me, so I segment and dice them.) Reserve any excess juice that comes free, or crush a few segments to produce some juice.
4. Whisk the orange juice, oil and vinegar together, and season with salt and pepper to taste. I used some syrupy fig vinegar diluted with white wine vinegar.
5. Boil the kale for 6-8 minutes and drain. 
6. Toss the Cavolo Nero, beets, sweet potato, and orange segments together with the dressing.
7. Crumble the feta over the salad and serve while still warm.

Vegan Baking

In Holland it is traditional to celebrate your birthday by treating others to cake, tart, borrel, or dinner. For example, on your birthday you bring in something like vlaai, appeltaart, or cake (usually purchased from the baker) for your co-workers. I always bring in homemade cake, quickbread, and/or cheesecake.

One of my colleagues is vegan, and doesn't  normally get to enjoy the treats people bring in, so I went hunting for some recipes that would work for him too. I started with the basics—banana bread and chocolate cake.

Vegan Banana Bread
Adapted from PostPunk's Banana Bread by substituting oil for margarine, reducing the white sugar, and adding ginger.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat or spelt flour 
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
6 tablespoons oil
6 tablespoons soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 very ripe bananas, mashed
6-8 pecans (optional)

1. Preheat oven to  350F/180C. Grease and flour an 8×4 bread pan (use oil or margarine, not butter!) 
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flours, baking soda, salt, and spices.
3. Mix the sugars, liquid ingredients, and mashed bananas. I puréed the liquid ingredients because I don't like chunks of banana in the resulting cake.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing just enough to moisten everything. 
5. Pour the batter into the pan, garnish with pecans (if using). 
6. Bake for aproximately 45 minutes.

Vegan Cocoa Cake

Adapted from The Essential New York Times Cookbook, Amazon Cake

This is a very easy, everyday cake. 

1 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup cold coffee or water

5 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoons vanilla

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

icing sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Line the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, mix the liquid ingredients together. (I dissolved 4 teaspoons of espresso powder into a cup of cold water.) 
3. In another bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients and mix well so that there are no lumps.
5. Pour into the greased cake pan and bake for 35-45 minutes. 
6. After 10 minutes, carefully turn the cake out onto a cooling rack, peel off the parchment paper, and flip onto another cooling rack or a plate.
7. Just before serving, sieve some icing sugar over the cake. (Use a paper doily or other cut out to produce a pattern.)

Dulce de Membrillo

I've seen them in the Turkish grocers and wondered what they were, and only recently discovered that they are quinces (kweeperen in Dutch). A South African colleague said he used to eat them sliced with a bit of salt, and apparently the Chinese and Turks also eat them this way. The Spanish and Portuguese, however, make them into dulce de membrillo. This is a firm, jelly-like paste that is traditionally sliced and served with a good cheese, such as the Spanish sheeps cheese manchego. The sweet and salt combination really works for me!

I recently acquired a new cookbook called Comfort Food by Janneke Vreugdenhil, which despite its name, is in Dutch. This recipe comes from her, but I've also seen recipes that call for some lemon juice and/or rind, a vanilla bean, and lots more sugar.  Although I like the idea of the lemon rind, I can't imagine using more sugar. This is plenty sweet enough.

Apparently membrillo is supposed to be a very rosy pink or red color. For whatever reason, my mebrillo turned out to be a caramel colour. It tastes fine, but I'm sorry it didn't turn pink. I wonder if it has to do with the variety of quince.

Dulce de Membrillo
Adapted from Comfort Food, Janneke Vreugdenhil

It is not difficult to make membrillo, but it is time-consuming. Ideally, you should have a kitchen scale (the amount of sugar you use depends on the weight of the cooked quinces) and a food mill (to puree the cooked quinces and separate the peels and cores). I don't have a food mill, so I used a sieve, but this was a lot of work.  I have since discovered some tips that would have made this less work. I've made note of these in the instructions.

4 quinces (this was1.6 kilos)
500-600 grams (2.25 - 2.75 cups) sugar
water

1. Wash the quinces, chop them, and put them in a large heavy pan. However, next time I will first peel and core the quinces, wrapping the peel, cores and seeds in a couple of layers of cheesecloth or muslin. (If these are hard to come by, consider using a very fine mesh laundry bag, or a knee-high stocking). 
2. Add enough water to the pan to reach a depth of 2 inches, add the peels and cores in muslin, and cook the quinces for 45 minutes until they are cooked soft. The peels and cores add a lot of pectin, which is needed to set the membrillo, so they really should be included.
3. Drain the cooked quinces, reserving the liquid for another purpose (add some sugar to make it into a syrup for pancakes or ice cream), and discarding the peels, cores, and seeds.
4. Purée the cooked quinces using a food mill, sieve, or food processor. (Using a spoon to push small batches of cooked quinces through a sieve took a good half hour. If I had separated the peels and cores, I could have used a food processor which would have been so fast and easy!)
5. Weigh the quince purée and return the puree tthe pan.
6. Add sugar that is equal to half the weight of the quince puree. In my case, the purée weighed about 1120 grams and had a volume of 4.5 cups, so half the weight in sugar was 506 grams.
7. Cook the quince purée, stirring frequently, to reduce it to a thick paste. Although you can start cooking over medium high heat, you'll need to turn it down soon to prevent the bottom from burning. I even used a flame spreader. 
8. Line a 9-inch square pan with baking parchment.
9. After 1.5 to 2 hours, the purée should no longer or hardly flow back when you stir it. At this point it's ready.
10. Pour and scrape it into the lined pan, spread it evenly with a spatula. Let it cool and set for a day. If the bottom has not quite set, turn the membrillo over onto a plate lined with more parchment paper, and return that to the pan. Let it stand for another 12 to 24 hours so that it can dry out and set some more. 
11. Cut the membrillo into squares or rectangles and wrap these in pastic wrap.  These will keep a long time int the fridge.
12. Serve with a good hard cheese, cutting it into thin slices. 

And All the Trimmings

Although I had guests to dinner for both Christmas and Boxing Day, the turkey event was on Boxing Day. I had ordered a free-range bronze turkey of almost 4 kilos and dry-brined it for three days before cooking. Since I discovered this technique several years ago, it's my go-to method of roasting poultry. The result was the best turkey I've ever eaten—moist, well-seasoned meat with lots of flavour.

But this blog is about a couple of the trimmings, specifically the gravy and the cranberry sauce. I stumbled upon Jamie Oliver's recipe for Get-Ahead Gravy and thought "that's a good idea"—less palaver before serving and knowing there is enough. I didn't have bacon and forgot about finishing with cranberry sauce, but even then, it was terrific. When making turkey gravy just before serving, it never gets to cook long enough and it doesn't get the extra vegetable flavour that this gravy gets. The recipe makes lots and there are leftovers that I'm going to freeze in small containers for those times I want a bit of gravy with the mashed potatoes.

The cranberry sauce was another hit. I made it last year too but made no notes about it. I paid special attention this year and I now declare my search for the perfect cranberry sauce at an end. This is lovely stuff, not too sweet, with a fairly pronounced citrus component, which I really like. In fact, it's actually a cranberry cumberland sauce.


Make-Ahead Poultry Gravy
This is slightly adapted from the original recipe. Based on comments and my own gut feeling, I reduced the amount of star anise. I also added a couple of garlic cloves. I think it was a good call. The resulting gravy has a hint of fennel/anise flavour but more would be overpowering. An alternative might be to include a quartered fennel bulb, but I didn't try this.

2 celery sticks, coarsely chopped
2 carrots,coarsely sliced
2 onions, peeled and quartered
2 cloves of garlic, smashed
5 bay leaves
5 sage leaves
4 sprigs of rosemary
1 star anise
2 rashers of bacon (I didn't have any, but I'm sure it would be great)
8 chicken wings
2-4 tablespoons olive oil salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons flour
2 liters hot water
60ml sherry optional:
2 heaped tablespoons cranberry sauce, for finishing

1. Preheat the oven to 200C (400F)
2. Break the chicken wings open and pound them with a meat hammer or rolling pin to crack the bones open. (I put them in a plastic bag and used a rubber mallet.)
3. Put the chopped vegetables, herbs, star anise,  bacon (if using)  and chicken wings in a roasting pan. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with the olive oil, and stir it around to coat. 
4. Bake for an hour until the meat is tender and falling off the bone.
5. Put the roasting pan on low heat on top of the stove.
6. Use a potato masher to mash everything up, squeezing as much flavour and juice out of everything as you can.
7. Gradually add the flour, and continue to mash, stir and brown for 5-10 minutes.
8. Add 2 liters of hot water to deglaze the pan, scraping all the browned bits up.
9. Transfer everything to a large pot, bring to a boil for 10 minutes until the sauce has thickened, and then simmer uncovered for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. The liquid will reduce by about half. 
10. When it has reached the desired consistency, add the sherry, check and adjust the seasoning, then strain through a sieve into a large bowl. Mash as much stuff through the sieves as you can, then discard what remains.
11. Let the gravy cool, pour into plastic containers or freezer bags, and freeze until the day you need it. 
12. You can heat it and use it as is, or if you have roasted a bird, remove as much fat as you can from the roasting pan, and use the pre-made gravy to deglaze the pan. 
13. Optionally, add some cranberry sauce and transfer to a pot to keep warm on low heat until use.

Cranberry Cumberland Sauce

• I adapted this recipe, mostly by adjusting the seasonings to suit the quantity of one 375 gram bag of cranberries.
  
  
  375 grams  fresh cranberries
• 200 ml ruby port
• 90 grams sugar
• 90 ml fresh orange juice
• 3/4 tsp corn flour
• 3/4 tsp English mustard powder
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• pinch of ground cloves
• 50 grams dried cranberries or raisins
• 40 grams flaked almonds
• 2 tsp grated orange rind
• 1 tsp grated lemon rind

1. Grate the peel of a large orange and juice the orange.
2. Combine the cranberries, port, orange juice, and sugar in a pan and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes until the berries burst.
3. Mix the cornstarch, mustard powder, and ground cloves with a small amount of the cranberry liquid to create a paste. Stir into the cranberries.
4. Add the dried cranberries or raisins, almonds, orange and lemon rind
5. Simmer for five minutes, season, and then chill. 

My Turkish greengrocer often has some surprising vegetables, and last week he was carrying something I had heard of but never seen locally—yellow beets. They look yellowy brown and indescript on the outside, but cut them open and they reveal gorgeous golden yellow flesh. The taste of the beets is, I think, less earthy and more subtle than the normal red variety.

I used a few of them to make beet soup, which was very tasty, but the yellow color faded and turned somewhat brownish. Maybe I cooked it too long.

The raw beet salad, however, was vibrant, fresh, and golden. It's super easy to make and could even turn beet haters into beet lovers.

Golden Beet Salad

This is inspired by a salad on Nigella Lawson's web site, made with red beets and dill (which I admit would be a great combo). However, I didn't have fresh dill on hand so I used parsley, and of course, my beets were yellow. The toasted mustard seeds add a slightly bitter note to the salad, balancing the sweetness of the beets, and the sour of the lemon juice. 

For an Asian-influenced variation, consider using cilantro (coriander leaf) and sweet wine vinegar to replace the parsley and lemon juice, with a bit of pickled ginger to garnish.

This serves two as an appetizer.

200 grams yellow beets (about 1 large beet)

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

3 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley

1 teaspoon fresh mint leaves, minced

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (However, I think a more neutral oil, or even no oil at all would make this salad even better.  )

1. Use the julienne disc of your food processor to grate the beets, or you can just grate the beets using a box grater.
2. Scoop it into a bowl and mix with the parsley, lemon juice, and oil.
3. Toast the mustard seeds until they begin to pop, then add to the salad.
4. Optionally, finish with a bit of flaky sea salt (like Maldon)