Salmon Burgers & Pickled Red Onions

In case you're agoraphobic or haven't been on Facebook and seen all the weather related statuses, today was an absolutely gorgeous day.  A sun-glass-wearing, take-your-dog-to-the-park, break-out-your-sandals, driving-with-the-windows-down-and-radio-blaring, napping-on-a-blanket-in-your-backyard kind of spring day.

Peppermint and I at the park.

I picked my mom up from work, and we decided we were going to grab some takeout for dinner, but as we were driving home - the warm breeze reminded me so much of the beach I could practically taste the salt in the air - I was hit with the overwhelming feeling that this was the perfect night for a burger and an ice cold beer.

So, we stopped at Wegmans, grabbed some buns, salmon, and a six pack of River Horse Triple Horse Belgian-Style Ale.  I love River Horse Brewing Company because its local (run out of Lambertville, fifteen minutes from my house), it's all hand crafted, and it's wonderfully delicious and really cute boys work there.

Salmon burgers are the easiet thing in the entire world to make...besides a bowl of cereal.  They're a blank slate.  You can add whatever ingredients or flavors that you like - fresh herbs, dressings, marinades, veggies or just salt and pepper.  I made ours with a little pepper, garlic, and soy.

And hey, going to the store, buying ingredients, coming home and cooking took the same amount of time it would have taken to go to a Chinese joint, order, wait for the food, and bring it home.  No time lost in our last minute change of plans.  And we got beer.  So win-win.

Pre-Pickling.

Oh, and I've mentioned my obsession with Bobby Flay, right?  Okay, so my dad and I went through a huge Throwdown phase.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Throwdown, it's a show where Bobby finds a chef famous for one dish, challenges them with his version of that same dish, then local celebrity judges have a blind taste test and they choose the best dish.  It gets pretty intense, and the challenged chef's aren't always gracious when Bobby's dish gets voted best.  Point of this tirade is that Bobby Flay uses pickled red onions in as many dishes as he can: tacos, empanadas, potato salad, hot dogs, burgers, you name it.  The only thing he didn't put them on was his Coconut Cake (which is one of the best goddamn things I've ever tasted).  Anyway, I've been wanting to make them for a long time, so the other day I was bored and made them.  They ended up being super easy and ridiculously good, and I have since tried to work them into every dinner - fish tacos last night, salmon burgers tonight.  They're sweet and tangy, adding great flavor without overpowering.  They seem to compliment everything.  Basically, they're magic.

Post-Pickling

Bobby's Pickled Red Onions
1 cup red wine vinegar
½ cup lime juice
¼ cup water
3 tbs sugar
1 tbs salt
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced


+ In a small sauce pan, bring the vinegar, lime juice, water, sugar and salt to a boil. 
+ Remove from heat, let cool for ten minutes.
+ In medium bowl, cover the onions with the vinegar, then cover and refrigerate for at least four hours.

Note: Instead of a bowl, I used two mason jars, putting half of the onion in each and then sealing.



Salmon Burgers
1 lb wild-caught salmon, skin removed, cut into large chunks (ask your fish monger to do this for you)
4 tbs soy sauce
4 cloved garlic, roughly chopped
pepper to taste





+ Combine all ingredients in food processor and pulse until salmon is broken down, but remains chunky.
+ Form salmon into palm sized balls, and then flatten into patties.
+ Cook on grease skillet or grill for 5-7 minutes on each side, depending on size and thickness.  Or if you're cooking on a George Foreman, 6-8 minutes.  

Burger and Beer.  Beautiful.

Satuday @ the Farmer's Market

You know what I love about spring more than the warm weather or robins or crocuses or kite flying or naps in the sun or pastel colors or waking up to the sun shining through my bedroom window?  The return of farmer's markets.  I love farm markets.  I'm lucky enough to live in an area loaded with farms and markets to sell their produce.  My favorite, Gravity Hill Farm is a small organic family-owned farm, and a five minute drive from my house.  Unfortunately, Gravity Hill doesn't open and begin selling until late in the spring, as do most farms.  Thankfully for me, the Trenton Farmer's Market is open all year round.

What's great about the farmer's market in Trenton is that not only does it feature produce from local farms, but there are permanent meat and cheese vendors, a winery, a fish monger, and bakeries, not to mention fresh pasta, peanut butter, honey, herbs and spices, and the Amish.  Yes, the Amish have made it to Trenton, a fact which the market boasts proudly.  The Amish are here and they brought Whoopie Pies.

Basically, they have everything.  And its all local.  The best part is the atmosphere; the coldness of the supermarket (fluorescent lighting, tile floors, lack of interaction between shoppers other than evil stares when someone cuts someone else off with their chart) is traded for the warmth of the farmer's market.  It's always the same people.  The vendors basically haven't changed since I was born, and the same people shop there every week.  You walk through the market and you hear the regulars greeting each other, and talking about their kids and estranged family members while sitting sharing a coffee and danish or plate of fried chicken.  There's a sense of community at the market that makes the whole shopping experience so much more enjoyable.

My dad and I hit up the Trenton Farmer's Market this morning to browse and pick up dinner fixings.  Right inside the entrance is the Terhune Orchard booth.  The Princeton farm is famous for their apples and cider, and their cider donuts are beloved by the Confoy family.  Aside from baskets and baskets of apples, Terhune had a lovely selection of fresh pies, fresh flowers, and spaghetti squash.  The girl working the booth was extremely helpful, steering us toward the best apple for chunky sauce (Winesap) and her own spaghetti squash recipes.  So, we bought some apples to make applesauce and squash to roast up.

After that, we hit up the Amish for a pie and free cookies.  (I have to say, those Amish have the cutest children in the entire world.  A five year old served us our cookies and worked the register, then ordered her father around about what needed restocking.  Adorable.  I couldn't handle it.  I wanted to steal her, but I felt like that might have been frowned upon.)

To finish up our time at the market, we walked outside and across the parking lot to the fish monger.  Now, while it looks like it might be a front for various illicit activities, its an amazing place to buy your fish.  It's got a great selection that's all fresh, and the monger really knows his fish.  Not only was he willing to answer questions we had (I got a nice little lesson on crabs and their behavior during this time of year), he gave us a deal on the filet of salmon we bought.  

Overall, it was a terribly successful Saturday outing, which led to a wonderfully delicious, fresh, and locally grown dinner.  While I love the Trenton Farmer's market, I can't wait till later this year, because for me, nothing beats a spring morning spent outdoors at the farmer's market.  

Spaghetti squash, Salmon, Homemade Apple Sauce