Usually I’m planning at least four meals ahead in the part of my brain especially reserved for such musings. However, once in awhile, I find myself sitting at my desk, starving and uninspired at 12:30 or so. On one such occasion I raided the pantry and the vegetables from my CSA box to create a light, quick, high energy springtime salad. It has plenty of protein from chickpeas and canned salmon and lots of flavorful, seasonal veggies. Brown baggers can whip up this highly portable salad the night before or early in the morning before work and forgot about relying on the local takeout. Makes two generous servings.

1-12-oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1-6-oz can of wild salmon

4 radishes, thinly sliced

1 small turnips, thinly sliced

1 spring onion, thinly sliced

1/2 of a celery rib, cut in half vertically and sliced thinly on the diagonal

1 carrot, cut into julienne or grated

Green garlic, tahini, and lemon dressing from this post

2 large handfuls of salad greens, washed and dried

1/2 an avocado, sliced

1 sheet of nori, toasted over the gas burner for 30 seconds until crispy, and cut into strips

Chopped parsley and cilantro

In a large bowl, combine the chickpeas, salmon, radishes, turnips, onion, celery, and carrot. Toss in the dressing and season to taste with salt and pepper. Pile the greens onto two plates (or shallow bowls), dividing them evenly. Top with the dressed salad. Garnish with avocado, nori, parsley, and cilantro. Serve immediately or refrigerate (separate from garnish and greens) for up to 2 days. This salad travels and keeps well.

After a flurry of inspiration and posts over the cooking holidays, I’ve been remiss about updating my blog lately. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been eating (and cooking!), it just means I haven’t been cooking anything I’d consider to be necessarily ground-breaking. But yeah, I cook and eat every day, as we all have to do. Here I share a smattering of recipes that indicate the types of dishes I make on regular ole weeknights from common ingredients. The types of dishes that I eat and enjoy thoroughly, but I don’t really talk about much. I originally did this post for Ecosalon, and I’m happy to share it here. Enjoy!

1. Smashed Potatoes and Garlicky Kale with an Egg on Top

20 minutes

1 large or two medium potatoes

2 – 4 tablespoons olive oil

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 bunch kale, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Grated Parmesan or Pecorino (optional)

1 over-easy egg (optional)

Put the potatoes whole into a steamer basket and steam until tender. Meanwhile heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet, add the garlic and sauté gently. Add the kale and stir to coat. Add a little water, cover, lower heat and cook kale until tender, stirring occasionally. Add the potatoes to the skillet with the kale and smash them together with a potato masher. Add olive oil, salt and paper, and grated cheese to taste. Serve hot with an egg on top (if desired).

2. Spinach and Rice Soup

20 minutes

2 tablespoons olive oil or butter

1/2 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/3 cup white rice

1 bunch spinach, washed

1 quart broth (chicken or vegetable or bouillon based)

Salt and pepper to taste

Grated Parmesan or Pecorino (optional)

In a soup pot, warm the olive oil or butter. Add the onion and garlic and cook until soft and fragrant. Add the rice and stir to coat. Add the spinach and sauté until soft. Add the broth and lower heat to a simmer. Cook until rice is tender, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with grated cheese on top, if desired.

3. Warm Chickpea Salad with Salmon

15 minutes

This one is free form. Add any selection of vegetables you like in your salads. Use any dressing you like, or make this one as directed. Stir in Harissa paste or pesto if you have it, or not if you don’t.

1 can chickpeas, drained

1 can wild Alaskan salmon

2 generous handfuls of salad greens or arugula

1/2 cup of sliced radish, grated carrot, avocado, roasted peppers, or any other vegetable you have (optional)

1 garlic clove, smashed with a mortar and pestle

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Gently warm the chickpeas in a small saucepan as you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Make a quick dressing with the garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil. Combine the warmed chickpeas, salmon, salad greens, and vegetables in a medium bowl. Toss with the dressing and season to taste with salt and pepper.

4. Lentils and Sausage with Greens

45 minutes

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 of an onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cup lentils

2 cooked or smoked sausages, sliced

1 bunch kale, chard, or spinach, washed and chopped

Paprika or smoked paprika to taste

Lemon juice to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Warm the olive oil in a medium pot. Add the onion and garlic and cook until soft and fragrant. Add the lentils and water to cover by one inch. Bring to a boil, lower heat to a slow simmer and cook until the lentils are tender, about 20 minutes. Add the sausages, greens, paprika, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until everything is warmed through and the greens are tender. Add the lemon juice just before serving and correct seasonings.

5. Seasonal Vegetable Coconut Curry Stew

30-40 minutes

2 tablespoons vegetable or coconut oil

1/2 onion, chopped

2-3 cups cubed orange squash, root vegetables, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, mushrooms, or combination of any

1 can coconut milk

Good quality red or green Thai curry paste to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Cilantro for garnish

Heat the oil in a large soup pot, add the onion and cook, stirring until tender and fragrant. Add the vegetables and the coconut milk and enough water to cover. Bring to a simmer and cook until the vegetables are nearly tender. Add the curry paste and salt and pepper to taste. Continue to cook to blend flavors and until vegetables are the desired softness. Serve over white rice garnished with chopped cilantro.

6. Warm Roasted Sweet Potato and Sausage Salad

20 minutes

1 large or 2 medium garnet sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces

2 to 4 tablespoons olive oil

1 or 2 cooked sausages

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

2 teaspoons pure maple syrup

1 teaspoon grainy mustard

2 green onions, sliced thinly on the diagonal

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Salt & Freshly ground pepper

Toss the sweet potatoes in 1 tablespoon olive oil with a little salt, and put them on a baking sheet. Roast in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes or until soft and beginning to crisp and brown. Halfway through the cooking time, slide a spatula underneath the potatoes to loosen them and flip them over gently so they don’t break apart.

Meanwhile, cut the sausages into bite-sized pieces and brown and warm them in a skillet with a little bit of oil. In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, maple syrup, mustard, and a tablespoon or two of olive oil.

Toss the cooked sweet potatoes and sausages together in a medium bowl. Add the green onions, parsley, and dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve warm.

7. Chilaquiles

10 minutes

2 eggs

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1/2 a red onion, peeled and sliced

3 or 4 corn tortillas

3/4 cup of your favorite red or green salsa

Leftover beans, shredded chicken, beef or pork (optional)

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Sprigs of cilantro, crumbled cheese, diced avocado for serving

In a large bowl, beat the eggs until smooth and add salt and pepper.

Stack the tortillas and cut them into eight wedges.

In a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat, warm the 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Add the onion, and cook until soft. Increase heat to medium high and add the tortillas. Cook, stirring occasionally, until brown and crispy. Pour in the salsa, and stir to blend. Add leftover meats or beans (if using). With a wooden spoon or spatula, move the tortillas and salsa to one side of the pan, add the teaspoon of oil to the other side and pour in the eggs. Scramble the eggs for a few moments until nearly cooked. Stir them into the tortillas and mix together. Serve immediately garnished with cilantro, cheese, and avocado.

I’ve been on a ceviche kick lately. It’s the perfect appetizer…satisfying, yet light. And it perfectly suits my way of cooking…invent as you go. Every weekend I’ve been picking up some type of fish (sustainable only) and experimenting with different ceviche flavor profiles. Eventually I plan to go around the word with my ceviche experiments, so stay tuned.

As for this inaugural effort, I’m not sure where it hails from, exactly. But I know where it’s going: Smack dab in the middle of my Thanksgiving appetizer table. Serve with light crackers (like Mary’s gluten free or rice crackers), or homemade tortilla chips. If you’re part of the 99% and you’re feeding a crowd, you might want to sub out a less expensive firm, sustainable fish of your choice. I’m thinking tilapia, local rockfish, wild sockeye, or mackerel.

Measurements are exceedingly inexact. Eyeball it, play and taste as you go. Scale up (tee hee) as you wish.

Serves 2

Approx 6 ounces pole caught albacore tuna, (or other firm fish) diced

Juice of 3 or 4 limes to coat thoroughly (possibly more)

1/4 of a dried espelette chile (or a couple pinches of ground espelette, good paprika, Aleppo or any other moderately spicy, fruity ground pepper)

1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger

1/2 of a red Fresno chile, seeded and diced very small

1 tablespoon finely diced red onion

1 tablespoon finely diced green onion

1/4 of a Fuyu persimmon, julienned

1/4 cup finely diced avocado

1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro

1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds

Mirin to taste (the purpose here is a little sweetness for balancing the tart limes. You could also use mild honey)

Salt to taste

Put the tuna in a medium bowl. Add the lime juice and toss to coat. The fish should be well covered but not swimming in lime. If you need more to thoroughly soak the fish, add it. Add the remaining ingredients by eye and toss. Let sit 10 to 15 minutes, tossing occasionally to mix well. Taste and correct seasonings. Serve immediately or refrigerate and serve within 6 hours.

Here’s a method for making a quick seafood stew that’s both sustainable and perfect for casual summer dining. No need to turn the oven on or fuss for hours in the kitchen.

Sustainable seafood is a complex topic. Even if you conscientiously refer to the guidelines of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program, you’ll likely still encounter grey areas and gaps in information.

Just a few of the common problems:

1. Species are often misnamed at fish counters; for example: rockfish is commonly referred to as red snapper, which is endangered. And while some Northern California rockfish are plentiful, others are not.

2. Sustainability often depends on where and how a fish was caught (information that isn’t usually available).

3. Farmed seafood can be farmed poorly or environmentally responsibly. Without visiting the operation, you’ll never know.

4. Not all types of seafood make it on to those little wallet cards, so you’ll often find yourself left in the dark.

Thankfully, there are a few fairly sure bets in the world of sustainable seafood. And they happen to make great seafood stew!

US Farmed clams, oysters, and mussels:

Mollusk aquaculture has low input (feed) requirements, if any, and mollusks are low on the food chain, (and consequently low in environmental toxins), fast reproducing, and plentiful

California squid:

Our local squid comes from a sustainable fishery and is also quick to reproduce and low in toxins. Make sure you buy California squid and clean it yourself. If you buy cleaned squid, it’s entirely possible that it was caught here, shipped to China, processed, and shipped back. Not so great from a carbon footprint point of view. Plus the fresh (never frozen stuff) just tastes better. Read this post for instructions on how to clean them.

DIY Delicious includes one recipe for sustainable seafood stew, but I like to use the basic technique and vary my stew according to my mood, the season, or what’s in the market. We made the stew pictured above in a cooking class I taught at River Myst Haven in Healdsburg, CA. It was a hit!

Here’s the basic recipe with variation suggestions:

Sustainable Seafood Stew

You can make this stew as basic or as luxurious as you like. The basic broth is easy, quick, and invaluable in the kitchen. You can vary the alcohol, adding anything from wine, to beer, to Pernod. For a Southeastern US flair, add Old Bay Seasoning. For a classic Mediterranean flavor, add saffron. If tomatoes are in season, add them. If not, leave them out. You can vary the aromatics and herbs however you like. You can even add chiles, lemongrass, and coconut milk and go in an entirely different direction. Experiment away. For serving this version, I like to float baguette croutons spread with a homemade lemony, garlic aioli in each individual bowl.

Serves 6

1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for croutons

1/2 medium onion, (or 3 leeks), roughly chopped

1 celery rib, roughly chopped

1 medium carrot, roughly chopped

1/2 small fennel bulb, chopped

2 garlic cloves, left unpeeled and smashed with the side of the knife blade

Salt

1 pound fish heads and bones (from a sustainable, local fish—I use wild salmon in season)

1/2 cup dry white wine (or Pernod)

1/2 cup fresh, chopped Roma tomatoes (optional in season)

3 or 4 sprigs fresh parsley (and/or other fresh herbs)

6 black peppercorns

Pinch fennel or coriander seeds

A pinch of saffron (optional)

2 pounds mussels, washed and debearded

2 pounds clams, washed

1 pound squid, cleaned (see Note)

Freshly ground black pepper

In a medium soup pot over medium heat, warm the 1/4 cup oil. Add the onion, (or leeks) celery, carrot, fennel, garlic, chiles (if using), tomatoes (if using), saffron (if using), and a few pinches of salt. Let the vegetables cook gently until soft and aromatic, about 10 minutes.

Add the fish heads and bones, 5 cups water, the wine, (or other alcohol), parsley, (or other herbs) peppercorns, and fennel (or coriander) seeds and bring to a boil. (this is when you would add lemongrass, if you were using it) Skim any scum from the top and lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer until fragrant and the broth begins to color, about 20 minutes.

Remove the broth from the heat and strain it. Return the broth to the pot, taste, and adjust the salt, pepper, and acid by adding a little more white wine (this is when you would add the coconut milk if you were using it) if desired.

Add the clams and mussels, cover, and simmer until they just open, 3 minutes or so. Add the squid and turn off the heat. Let sit, covered, for 30 seconds. Discard any unopened clams or mussels and ladle the stew into 4 warmed, shallow bowls.

It’s funny how recipes are developed. At least in my house. This one came out of the fateful collision between the opening of crab season and a few scenes in a bad Woody Allen movie.

Let me explain.

Crab season always opens just before Thanksgiving when everyone is busy with turkey, stuffing, gravy and mashed potatoes. Every year, I rush past the fish counter as I do my Thanksgiving shopping, wink at the piles of crab, and promise them I’ll get to them as soon as I can.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving I was watching Whatever Works, Woody Allen’s second to latest movie. The one with Larry David. It wasn’t very good, but I was smitten by the grits one of the characters kept making throughout the movie. They just sounded so good. At the same time, in the part of my brain reserved for menu planning, I was chewing over a menu for a friend’s birthday dinner the next night. I wanted something special. Something extra seasonal. I wanted crab. But I wanted to do more than just throw it on the table with some melted butter and an empty bowl for the shells.

I went to bed with those thoughts stewing. I woke up and shouted (silently) “Spicy Crab and Grits like they do at Hibiscus!” It had all come together in my sleep.

I needed a recipe, or at least an idea, so I started googling around. Nothing except a blog post about the dish from my pal Molly Watson. I sent her an email outlining my idea for recreating the dish to see what she thought. After reminding me about the green onions, she confirmed that I was probably on the right track.

As soon as I took the first bite, I knew I had it. It was absolutely sublime and so so easy. Here’s how I did it. I ended up using polenta because I couldn’t find grits at Market Hall. And ARE they the same thing? There’s so much conflicting information out there, I decided I didn’t care. I also tried making polenta in the oven for the first time and I’ll never ever go back to the stovetop. I gleaned the method I used from this post on chowhound.

This is a terrible picture, but trust me, it’s good

Serves 2

3 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup polenta

1/4 cup heavy cream

A helluva lot of butter (I’m not sure how much I used. More than a half stick and less than a whole stick)

1 small shallot, cut into a miniscule dice

1/3 of a celery rib, cut into a miniscule dice

About 2 teaspoons good quality spicy ground chile of your choice to your taste (I used a mix of good cayenne, Aleppo, and piment d’Espelette)

About 1 1/2 cups of picked crab meat

3 green onions (white and green parts), chopped fine

Preheat the oven to 375. Combine the water, salt and polenta in a heavy baking dish with a lid. Stir together. Pop it in the oven. Remove from the oven and stir every 15 minutes, cooking for a total of 45 minutes. Turn off the oven, stir in the heavy cream, and return the polenta to the hot oven while you prepare the crab.

In a heavy skillet over medium heat, warm the butter. Add the shallot and celery and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the chile, crab, green onions, and a little salt if you need it (crab can be salty) and stir to warm through. Add more butter if you like.

To serve, spoon the polenta onto warmed plates or shallow bowls. Top with crab mixture, dividing it evenly. Dig in and swoon.

Evidently I’m pretty good at growing summer squash, and not much else. Of all my garden plants the only two that bore much of anything edible are two very different heirloom squash varieties.

They sit next to a trumpet vine so they were pollinated and pollinated and pollinated. Did I mention I live alone? I’m just saying that’s a lot of squash no matter how many friends will continue to accept your offerings.

I’ve also gotten adept at inventing uses for squash. Shredded salads, pureed soups, steamed and mashed with cheddar (Thanks to Jimtown and Carrie Brown for that one) and then of course, the usual zucchini bread and a zillion variations on pasta sauce.

One day I was doing my usual, “what can I do with squash today?” mental exercise and I suddenly remembered a delicious O Konomi Yaki recipe from my old Fields of Greens cookbook. I swore it called for zucchini but when I looked at the recipe, it actually didn’t. That fact did not stop me.

Basically the dish involves shredding carrots and cabbage, (or zucchini) and adding some sliced shiitakes, green onions, and ginger then cooking the veg in sesame oil until wilted.

Next, add a little soy sauce, mirin, and some pepper flakes and cook until liquid is absorbed.

Transfer to a bowl and add just enough beaten egg (1 per 3 cups of vegetables) and flour (1 to 2 tablespoons) to hold the mixture together for cooking in a cast-iron pan.

Stir in some chopped cilantro just before cooking over medium-high heat for 2 to 3 minutes per side and you’ve got it.

I made a little dipping sauce with soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, sugar, and rice vinegar to go with, and, for an uncomplicated accompaniment, I wrapped fillets of wild salmon in parchment with mushrooms, lemon, and tomato and baked it at 350 for about 15 minutes. All in all, a quick and satisfying meal with minimum mess and fuss.

I’m not a diver but I’m a cook so I feel fortunate to have been invited on a camping trip with a bunch of abalone divers. I’m always happy to let my imagination run wild in the camp kitchen. And even happier to be able to eat copious amounts of one of the last wild foods available to us.

After my chilly weekend at Van Damme State Park in Mendocino, I have a new appreciation for abalone and the divers who harvest it. Because you know what? It’s not that easy to catch abalone. You may think, “How hard can it be? It’s not like they run away or anything, right?” And though abalone can’t technically move fast enough to flee from divers, they do have other deterrents at the disposal. As does the Calfornia Department of Fish & Game. 

First of all, while there are seven of species of abalone in California, the only ones the divers are allowed to take are Red Abalone no smaller than seven inches in diameter. To preserve the population, licensed divers are allowed three abalone per day with a maximum of 24 per season. The season runs from April through November with a closure in July.

Regulations also prohibit the use of oxygen tanks, so would-be abalone divers have to be highly skilled.  Imagine diving down to a depth of 20-30 feet in freezing water, while holding your breath. Once you’re down there, you have to find the abalone, make sure they are the proper size and species and then move swiftly to pry them off the rock with a special tool. Tip them off to your presence and they seize onto the rock, making it impossible to remove them. One strike and you’re out. The seas can be rough, and visibility can be low, adding to the difficulty.

For these reasons it’s also dangerous. Emergency responders in Mendocino County rescue about 15 abalone divers each year. Nearly every year, somebody dies while diving for abalone. Last year’s death count was three.

Lets say you’re diving and you make it back to the surface with your abalone and head to the campsite to relax. First you have to pry the abalone out of their shells (this sounds nicer than saying you have to kill the live mollusks), and then you must trim out their goopy reproductive and digestive organs, as well as the black edges and the tough bits of the “foot.” Finally you have to pound the hell out of them or they’ll be too tough to eat. Then you can relax while someone else cooks them (if you’re lucky). In reality, most divers do cook. Usually they grill it, poach it, or slice, pound, bread, and pan-fry it. All are perfectly respectable ways to enjoy the sweet, oceany flesh.

On the third meal, something a little different was in order. I’ve made ceviche with abalone at home previously, but I wanted to do something a little different, so I brought along some kumquats to go with the usual ceviche flavors. The chowder was entirely unplanned. It was an incredibly cold weekend and, on one of our frigid hikes, Haven and I were fantasizing about chowder. We had potatoes in the cooler. We thought if only we had cream and bacon, we could make a fabulous abalone chowder. Luckily one of the other campers had both cream and bacon so our dream came true. 

Here are the recipes—proportions are estimated. We cook by feel in the campsite.

Abalone Ceviche with Kumquats

2 abalone, sliced thinly into strips

6-8 kumquats, sliced as thinly as possible

2-3 serrano chiles, finely diced (seeds removed or left in depending on how much heat you want)

1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped

1/2 of a red onion, cut half, then thirds lengthwise and then thin, half-moon slices

Juice of 5-6 limes

Salt to taste

Toss all of the above in a bowl and let sit for at least 30 minutes or up to 24 hours.

Campsite Abalone Chowder

This was truly a camp collaboration incorporating the ideas of many. One of the beautiful things about this chowder was that we were able to use the tough abalone trimmings to make a super flavorful stock. If there had been celery, I definitely would have put some in both the chowder and the stock. I used leftover cooked bacon from breakfast for the chowder, but if you don’t have cooked bacon you could sauté it in its own fat, add the onion and skip the butter if you want (or pour off some of the bacon fat and still use butter for flavor)

Stock:

2 pounds abalone trimmings

1/2 of an onion, roughly chopped

1 slab bacon

Chowder:

1/2 stick butter

1/2 of an onion, diced

2 to 3 russet potatoes, peeled and diced

1 abalone, diced

4 to 5 pieces of cooked bacon, crumbled

Cream to taste (about a cup)

Salt and pepper to taste

Put the abalone trimmings, onion, and bacon in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and simmer slowly for 1 to 2 hours, strain. (can be made one day ahead and refrigerated).

In a soup pot, melt the butter, add the onion and sauté until translu
cent. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Add the potatoes and simmer until tender. (I added water to stretch it here because the broth was super flavorful) Add the abalone, bacon and cream and simmer until the abalone is tender, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

If you’ve never cooked sablefish, you’ll find that it’s a reasonable substitute for the overfished rockfish and snapper usually used in dishes like fish tacos, and other preparations where you want a mild, white fillet of fish. It has a moist texture that lends itself well to a variety of preparations. I always find myself wishing it were a little flakier and a little less gelatinous, but it works pretty well. You may also see it as Black Cod at the fish counter.

This was a really easy dinner to make with little prep time and few ingredients. Its only down side is the number of pots and pans I used. One for the fish, one for the rice, one for the greens and yet another for the dal. If you cook the dal on a different day, that will make it a little less dish intensive.

For the dal, I use red split lentils and just cook them in water with a little turmeric and salt until tender (takes about 20 minutes) Then I sauté chilies (either fresh green or dried red) with mustard seeds, cumin seeds, garlic, shallots, and whatever else I’m feeling like adding, over high heat in oil or ghee and then quickly add the sizzling hot mixture to the dal, stir in and cover to permeate the dal with flavor. Ratio of lentils to water is about 4 to 1. The rest you’ll have to eyeball.

For the fish, I followed a recipe in Niloufer King’s fabulous James Beard Award winning My Bombay Kitchen for masala seafood. You don’t even need a recipe. It’s basically cayenne, turmeric and salt rubbed into scored fish fillets that are then fried quickly in a very small amount of oil. It’s wonderful and wonderfully easy. The rest of the meal is just sautéed mustard greens and Massa Brown Rice with some sprigs of fresh cilantro.

And Hey! I’m going to Mexico for two weeks so you might not hear from me. I might try to blog from there, but not sure. At any rate, expect some good posts about Mexican food when I return. I’m staying with a family and I hear the Senora is a very good cook and I’ve been assured that I’ll be welcome in her kitchen. Qué Bueno! Feliz Navidad Y Año Nuevo!

The impetus consisted of three steamed russet potatoes that never quite made it into Susan’s birthday potato salad with the Yukons, because it hadn’t seemed quite right to mix them.

Those potatoes had been taunting me from the vegetable drawer for a couple of days. Just daring me to use them. I kept thinking of eggs, and breakfast, and hash, but it just never happened. Suddenly it was Monday night and I was faced with a drawer full of fresh vegetables and a mean protein craving, with nary a speck of flesh defrosted.

Resourcefulness kicked in.

Makes 4 small patties

3 medium steamed russet potatoes, peeled
1-7.5 ounce can of wild salmon, skin and bones removed (I snack on them or feed them to the dog) and flaked
About 2 tablespoons freshly chopped herbs such as parsley, tarragon, chives, whatever you have
A dollop of mayonnaise
Harissa paste or a sprinkling of good paprika or Aleppo pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a medium bowl, mash the potatoes with a potato masher until they are broken down, but with some texture remaining.

Add the salmon, herbs, a small spoonful of mayonnaise, the harissa or other pepper, and salt and pepper. Mix and check for seasoning. Also check to see if the mixture holds together when you try to form it into a patty. If not, add a little more mayonnaise until it does.

Form the mixture into 4 patties, dividing it evenly. Heat the oil in a cast iron pan over medium high heat until it is shimmering but not smoking. Carefully lower the patties into the pan. Cook on the first side until crisp and brown (2 to 3 minutes) Turn and cook the other side for an additional 2 to 3 minutes until brown. Serve immediately accompanied by seasonal vegetables. In this case it was steamed then sautéed broccoli with red pepper flakes and garlic, along with roasted golden beet and arugula salad.

An unexpectedly great Monday night dinner, and easy too!

Last week it was brutally hot around here and all I could think about was the Mexican corn I had at the Eat Real Festival. See my post about the festival on EcoSalon.

I had some corn in the fridge that needed eating so I went out shopping for more food and inspiration. I walked into the fish store at Market Hall in Rockridge and I immediately thought, “Ceviché!” And there you have it: Mexican corn and ceviche on a hot night. Perfection.

For the Corn:
Boil, grill, or steam it. (I steamed because it was too hot to boil water and it’s both energy efficient and water saving, and I’d never light the grill just for corn)

Slather with thick, plain, Greek yogurt (for all those people that are freaked out by mayonnaise) Sprinkle with Mexican oregano, Aleppo pepper, and Parmesan cheese.

For the Ceviché:
3/4 pound halibut (I used two sea scallops for part of it, but you could use all halibut) cut into bite-sized pieces
Juice of 3 limes
Chopped cilantro to taste
One-half of an avocado, in bite-sized pieces
1 firm, tart plum, sliced thinly into wedges
One-half of a large jalapeno (or a whole small one) quartered, seeded, and diced
1 small shallot, sliced thinly
Salt
Pepper
Aleppo pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients and refrigerate for about 45 minutes before serving.

Plums? you say? I don’t know where the plum idea came from. It just popped into my head. Too much Top Chef? Anyway, it worked, playing the same role as tomato would in ceviché. I freshly fried corn tortillas before serving and I’m telling you it was good. I have no idea why I don’t make ceviché more often.

For the Aleppo pepper in both recipes, you could substitute cayenne (be careful because it’s usually hotter) or some other mild, ground chile. I just really love Aleppo for its heat level and slight fruitiness.