Grill Lettuce and Salmon Burgers

Grilled Salmon Patties & Grilled Salad

     Sometimes a Wednesday just needs a spark. So, tonight we are going to have some super simple and very tasty Salmon Patties with fruit salsa and grilled lettuce halves with a vinaigrette dressing.

     This is a staple meal at our house. The taste is huge and it is easy to prepare. My duties include remembering to thaw the salmon patties that morning. During the cooking I prep the Romaine lettuce, cut the bread, and also prepare the salsa and the vinaigrette dressing.

     The fruit salsa brightens the salmon patty into an extraordinary dish.

     The vinaigrette is just piquant enough to turn the humble Romaine into a mouth watering salad.

     Once we were visiting relatives in Kotzebue (KAWT-zuh-byoo), a small town above the Arctic Circle in Alaska. Kotzebue is on the Baldwin Sound and surrounded on three sides by water. 

     We walked down to the shore line where the Native fishermen were selling their daily harvest of salmon. It was a brisk August day and we had on light jackets. The children from the area were out swimming in the water. brrrr....  We were definitely from Arizona (at that time) and not use to what passes as hot summer weather above the Arctic Circle!

     We purchased a huge (4’) salmon for $6.00 that day. My sister-in-law, whose home we were staying at, apologized at how expensive the salmon was. We had a good laugh and then shocked her when we told her that fresh Alaska salmon was $15.00 a pound at home!

     My sister-in-law, in Kotzebue, proceeded to cover her kitchen floor with newspapers, laid the fish down, and quite expertly filleted the salmon before our eyes. Her audience included her fat cat, James Bond, who minded his manners and waited until she gave him some fresh salmon. She then cooked generous fillets for us.

    That was a salmon feed to remember!

    Want to know more about Kotzebue?  Well, here is a link.  It is something to experience!

http://www.commerce.state.ak.us/dca/commdb/CIS.cfm?Comm_Boro_name=Kotzebue

    Well, we purchase the frozen salmon from the membership big box store most times here in New Mexico. We also have the option of fresh flown-in fish but tonight it is the less expensive but tasty salmon burgers.

Salmon Ingredients

2 salmon patties, thawed in the fridge

2 bakery slices of French bread as a base only (a nice bread base to catch all the flavors and add some starch to the meal)

Fruit Salsa (recipe next)

Fruit Salsa

1 C. frozen tropical style fruit, thawed and chopped small  

This can thaw as you make the salsa

1 mango cut up (they are on special here for 2/$1 now so I had some left over and threw that in but you may omit this)

2 T. minced red onion

1 small garlic clove minced

1 T. of mild prepared green chilé from a can or frozen or use fresh chilé finely chopped with seeds and membranes removed (do use those throw away gloves if you are preparing a fresh chile)

½ lime squeezed on top or 1 T. of lime juice this is VERY important

1 t. of chopped cilantro, optional

Salt to taste

Mix gently and place in fridge for about 10-15 minutes. Note: If the base tropical fruit is still frozen then leave this out while grilling the meal so the fruit can thaw

Salad

One head of Romaine lettuce washed and cut in half. LEAVE the base of the lettuce on!

Spray with a butter spray 

Salad dressing

4 T. of olive oil

1 T. Dijon or other designer mustard (the prepared bright yellow mustard doesn’t taste good in this)

¼ t. Worcestershire-type sauce

1-2 T. parmesan cheese

1-2 t. balsamic vinegar

Fresh ground pepper to taste

Whisk and set aside

Put it together!

Wash and oil the grill racks.

Preheat the grill to hot, hot, hot

Place the salmon patties on the grill, flip as needed, and when the patties are nearly done place the lettuce on the grill

The Romaine halves will be done when they are warm and are a bit charred

Sometimes we put the bread on the grill.  Put a T. of olive oil on a plate and push the face of each slice of bread down on the olive oil then grill the bread.   This makes a nice flavor for the bread too.

Serve:

Salmon patties on the grilled French bread topped with salsa

Romaine lettuce topped with dressing

     That’s the ‘lower 48’ state, New Mexico, way to have nutritious and tasty salmon feed.