Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Canned goods

One of my all time favorite funny phrases has to be “open a can of whoop-ass”. Not that I use it very often, but it sure makes me grin every time I hear it. I think it's meant to be a genial threat, that I will unleash a great deal of pain on someone who has offended me. However, I can never keep a straight face when I try it out, and neither can anyone else when I deliver it with my slight German accent.

Speaking of cans, I don't keep a lot of them in my pantry. Although there are a few things that are great out of a can: tomatoes, coconut milk, tuna and beans, for the most part, I buy fresh. Except, cans do come in really handy when we go river rafting. Then all bets are off. Especially during the latter part of a rafting trip through the Grand Canyon we eat mostly canned goods and stuff with lots of preservatives.

But that doesn't mean we don't have some pretty awesome meals. One year, our friend Mark even made a turkey dinner with stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, corn, the whole works. We only draw the line when it comes to Dinty Moore beef stew, which one of the boatman has tried to sneak in, I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole! But we always have cans of Pringles for lunch; the chips stack perfectly, taste deliciously artificial and stay crunchy. We carry canned beets, tuna, olives, artichoke hearts, peaches, corn. The cans happily bounce and bang around, get smashed in big rapids and no harm is done. Big nylon nets of beer cans hang off the boats to chill in the icy Colorado River for the evening.
A great meal out of a can on one of these trips are salmon cakes. Using a big griddle, we have a whole bunch of them sizzling in no time. Even when we resort to tinned salmon, egg beaters, canned bread crumbs and lemon juice from a plastic lemon, they still are really tasty after a long day of rowing in the hot sun.

No reason to open a can of whoop ass ;)

Salmon Cakes
Makes 5 - 6 cakes


2 6 oz cans of skinless and boneless salmon
1 egg, beaten
2-3 tb dried breadcrumbs
1 tb mayonnaise
1 tb Dijon mustard
1-2 tb freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 scallions, finely chopped or 2 tb finely chopped parsley
3 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, diced
salt, freshly ground pepper







Drain salmon and using a fork, break apart into even-sized pieces. Mix with egg, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, mustard and freshly squeezed lemon juice. If too dry, add more mayonnaise and if too wet, use a few more breadcrumbs. Stir in scallions or parsley and sun-dried tomatoes, season to taste with salt and pepper. Form into 5 - 6 cakes and sauté in olive oil over medium heat until cooked through and golden brown.


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