My hubby practically forced me out the door for a run and took over my blog for the night. I happily complied. So take it away, sweetie!
Sometimes the recipes I pick are chosen due to an odd mix of ingredients I find in the cupboard or freezer. Tonight it was a can of salmon and half a package of frozen asparagus. Hmm. What to make? So I found a
recipe that sounded good and was easy enough to modify using ingredients on hand. Behold the
Nutty Salmon Asparagus Bacon Wraps
What you'll need:
14.75 oz can Wild Alaskan Salmon
1 T Olive oil
2/3 c Almonds
1 t Safflower oil
1 T onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic
1 T mayonnaise
1 t. Parmesan cheese
1 t. spicy brown mustard
1 t. chives
1 t. old bay seasoning (see recipe
here)
1 egg white
bunch of fresh asparagus (about a dozen stalks)
1 dozen pieces of bacon
I started by chopping the almonds in a food processor, adding some safflower oil and a dab of melted butter to make nuts moist and gooey. Other nuts, like pinion nuts or some pecans may be oily enough to stick together on their own, but these almonds weren't.
Next, I chopped the onion and garlic in the food processor then sauteed them in butter. When these were translucent, I mixed them with the following ingredients in a bowl: beaten egg white, almonds, mayo, cheese, mustard, old bay, and chives.
- I beat the egg whites with a hand beater until they were slightly foamy. I can't say this was an important step, but in my book, you're either using egg whites (with no yoke) for texture (so you need to beat them) or you're disagreeing with God and birds everywhere about what makes a good egg.
- It was at this point I realized I didn't have the Old Bay spice, so this step took a little longer while I mixed some up following the first recipe on this page. Also, I think this mixture may have turned out a titch too salty.
I drained the salmon and cooked it in a pan with the olive oil, breaking it apart and picking out anything that looked like a bone. Fish bones and I don't get along. I'm not sure what the term for this is when you're working with salmon, but if it was beef I'd say I was browning it. Although the original recipe called for cooling the salmon in the fridge, I skipped that part because I don't have all day.
This mixture should have all the ingredients in it now except the asparagus and bacon, and should be firm and sticky enough to form balls, like a cookie dough. If not, chilling it for about an hour in the fridge could help.
I cut the asparagus into pieces about as long as a bacon rasher was wide, and placed them a couple of asparagus pieces on each rasher. Then I formed a ball of nutty salmon dough and put it on the asparagus, and wrapped the bacon around it adding more asparagus on the sides and top. I used about one stalk of asparagus per salmon cake, and sealed the whole thing with a toothpick.
Taking a hint from the original recipe, I used the
broiler pan and lid so the bacon grease could drain off, and baked these at 375 for an undetermined amount of time - just long enough for the bacon to look crispy, probably about half an hour or less.
Ratings from the Experts*:
Jen: 8, it's a bit on the salty side
John: 7, too salty for my tastes, although a lot of seafood I've had tends to be saltier than I'd prefer. Also, I've never been a huge "wrapped in bacon" fan. It could also use more asparagus - 2 stalks per wrap. I would also be interested in trying this with pecans, I think they would bring more flavor than the almonds did. However, I'll be taking these to work...they won't spoil in the fridge.
