Poached Salmon Balls with Cucumber Dill Yogurt Sauce

Salmon Balls are funny to think about. Lets get it clear, these are pureed salmon made into balls, not anything weird! These taste very much like the poached salmon you know, only more light and airy. They are almost without texture and melt in your mouth. Much like a French quenelle, if you have ever eaten those. 

Delicate pink dumplings of fish are held together only by egg and just a tad of potato starch. They take only moments to cook, literally two minutes in hot water.

Some might wonder, why bother making balls when plain salmon is so good itself? Novelty, great texture, interesting party food!

If you have family members who don't enjoy fish much, fish balls may be an easy way around that. Often texture or flavor is the offending characteristic. By pureeing it, both of those change. We all have heard that fish is an important food to include in our diets. Wild salmon especially has great nutrients and Omega 3's that make it a super healthy choice.

Most children should be eating more fish that they probably do, if they are not big fans of fish filets, try these poached fish balls. Changing the presentation makes fish accessible and fun, you can even eat them with your fingers!

It would be a very sophisticated choice for a party appetizer, served warm. I really enjoy them served just above fridge temperature as a luncheon dish. or stuck with toothpicks at pot luck. Once poached, they keep in the fridge for a day or two. So it would be possible to make the salmon balls one evening, stick a platter in the fridge and bring them to the afterwork party the next day, drizzled with sauce.

Warning:

The first time you make fish balls you may feel that you are committing a crime. When you put the nice fillet into the food processor, your heart may catch in your throat and you wonder if you should just pan-fry the thing. I know the feeling. But I urge you to take a deep yoga breath and just trust in trying something new. The paste may look terrible at first, just keep calm and fish-ball on! 

The cream sauce in my book is made with sour cream. But here I would like to share my yogurt sauce recipe, which is what I gravitate to. Plain yogurt, greek yogurt, goat yogurt, and sour cream are different but would be totally interchangeable here. Though plain yogurt will result in a thinner sauce. 

They are dead easy to make, fish and other ingredients go into the food processor. Get a big pot of salted water at a rolling boil. Then, very important, turn the heat on the water down, so it is no longer boiling. A very light simmer means the water is moving but not aggressively at all. (If the water boils, your fish balls will break apart.)

I use a mini scooper, it holds near to 2 teaspoons. If you don't have one use two small spoons to fashion ball-like portions. 

As each portion of fish-paste is scooped up, deposit it into the very-lightly-simmering poaching water. Continue, working in batches, each ball will fall in the water, puff up a bit, and then rise to the surface when it is near done. I find mine require about 2 minutes total in the water to cook. 

Remove them with a slotted spoon to a plate. Much of the excess water will steam off. Repeat with all remaining fish paste.

Mix up the dill sauce, chopped dill, peeled diced cucumber, yogurt, salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon. 

Poached Salmon Balls

makes 25 fish balls

Cucumber sauce:

• 1/2 cup peeled, diced cucumber
• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• 2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• fresh ground pepper to taste
• squeeze of lemon as needed

Salmon balls:

• 1 pound salmon, skin and bones removed
• 1/2 cup whole milk (goat milk or non-dairy milk)
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon (12g) potato starch

To make the sauce, simply mix the peeled and diced cucumber with the yogurt, dill, salt, pepper and squeeze of lemon as liked. 

Cut the salmon into chunks small enough to fit into a food processor. Puree the fish until it becomes a fine paste. Add the milk and remaining ingredients. Puree about 10 seconds or as long as necessary to make the mixture very smooth. 

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil on the stove. Turn the heat down to a bare simmer. With a spoon scoop up a small bite sized portion of the salmon paste. You can form egg shapes with two spoons, or use a mini scooper. As each is formed, drop it into the poaching water.

Each salmon ball will sink before floating. Allow to cook another minute or two on the surface (total about 2 minute cooking time depending on size of the balls.)

With a slotted spoon, remove the poached salmon to a warm plate. Cover with the dill sauce and serve warm or at room temperature. If you have leftovers, they are good chilled.

Roasted radishes

Roasting vegetables brings out all the sweet sugars hiding inside, making taste buds happy.

Radishes are the same as any other root veggie, when faced with oil, salt and 350° heat for 25 minutes they succumb to caramelization. No matter how sharp and crunchy they start out!

Roasted radishes

The first time I remember having roasted radishes was only this past May. They were served as an appetizer at a friend's house. Salty, soft, caramelized. Nothing which I usually associate with radishes. 

Visiting the farmer's market last week, I stopped at Grant's Plants, which always has tender lettuces and is also known for his prize winning chickens and their delicious eggs. I was too late for the eggs, which had all been bought, but there were bucketloads of the most beautiful radishes! 

Presented like red and pink rubies. I came home with far more bunches than needed! 

The red round ones are wonderful but there is nothing quite as charming as a neat bunch of long French breakfast radishes. The pink and white variety sooks sort of like little mice with tails. I hear that in France they eat them by dipping in butter and sprinkled with salt. I have never seen anyone in France do this, perhaps they do it for breakfast when nobody is looking? 

Butter dipping isn't for me. I made a big crunchy fattoush salad with many of them. And the remainder I roasted next to some colorful carrots. Which is what I will look forward to doing with the bunches I hope to buy next week! 

The salt is a key element, use a good sea salt. I are some in a salad at lunchtime and for dinner I dipped them in hummus-so delicious! 

Roasted Radishes

1 bunch radishes, tops removed
sea salt
olive oil

Wash radishes well, there is often silt hiding in the green tops. Place clean and dried radishes into a roasting dish.


If you care to, line the dish with foil, so you don't have to wash it! If you are roasting many things at once you can make separate foil pens for each thing, in case they finish before one another, which is what I did. The cut carrots and radishes were done at the same time, for the record.






Drizzle generously with olive oil, so there are puddles in the pan. And sprinkle liberally with sea salt.

Shake it all about...hokey pokey the vegetables.


Cook in a 350° oven for 25 minutes.

When done
they will be
fork tender, wrinkled,
with crispy tails
and golden brown
spots.

Cooling Watermelon, Cucumber, Mint and Goat Feta Salad

Watermelon, Cucumber, Mint and Goat Feta Salad

It is officially summer time. Sunscreen and bug-spray perfume the air of weekends by the waters edge and long lazy evenings. It is suddenly hot all the time. The ice maker does all it can to keep up with the glasses of iced tea.

Wedding season coincides with this most glorious high point of summer evenings. This weekend I attended a beautiful farm wedding where guests were asked to bring all the side dishes. There was a grill filled with hamburgers and outdoor fryers for turkey. Three kinds of cakes were made by a friend of the bride. (This time it wasn't me! So relaxing.) The salads and veggie dishes were brought by an assortment of family and friends. 

Watermelon

Watermelon salad is the sort of thing I might order in a restaurant, but wouldn't normally think to make at home. I would just eat my watermelon straight up, for dessert. I got this recipe from my sister, instructing me over the phone while she was sitting in summer traffic. it was fun to make and not surprisingly just as fun to eat. Lime dressing pulls all the flavors together. And it presents sparkling and jewel colored on the table.

Limes have lately been unreliable due to droughts, sometimes having no juice. So good luck, you might need an extra one. 

Feta cheese holds together well in this juicy salad. Goat chevre could be used, but know it might melt melt in more than the feta does. Cow feta of course course could be substituted.

It is a matter of cubing the watermelon and cucumber in an attractive way. This gets a little juicy, if you have one of those cutting boards with a channel around the outside, use that to avoid puddles. The rest is easy as pie.  

Watermelon, rind removed and sliced

Cooling Watermelon, Cucumber, Mint and Goat Feta Summer Salad

1/2 a watermelon

1 English cucumber

Mint leaves, a big handful of fresh leaves

Lime juice from 1 to 2 limes

drizzle of olive oil

black pepper

salt

Goat feta cheese

Slice the watermelon in half, slice this in half again. From each 1/4 of melon, remove the rind in pieces with a knife, leaving a wedge of sweet watermelon.

Cubed watermelon

Slice the wedge of watermelon in even 1/2 inch slices. The slices are fanned out in the photo, but stack them up neatly to cut into cubes. Slice the long way into 1/2 inch lenghths, and then turn, slicing into 1/2 inch squares. This way, they are the same size, making perfect cubes. Very pretty!

Diced cucumber and mint

Dice the cucumber, which is easier to handle than the big melon. 

Combine cucumber and melon into a large bowl. Reserve some mint leaves to garnish the top of the finished salad. Tear the remaining leaves with your fingers into pieces. I love mint and it is a feature here, so put in a lot, I guess it was about 1 cup. 

Squeeze the limes and pour the juice over the salad. Toss and taste if more lime juice would be a good thing. 

Season with salt and pepper. A drizzle of good olive oil will bring the savory flavors together. 

When the seasoning is right, crumble goat feta into it. Toss briefly and put into a beautiful serving bowl. Garnish with mint leaves.

Watermelon, Cucumber, Mint and Goat Feta Summer Salad

Chive Blossom Vinegar

When faced with thousands of beautiful chive blossoms I think, what do we do with them? They make pretty garnishes on plates, and whimsical additions to salad when torn up.

The couple who run Maitland Mountain Farm in Salem have a lot of chives. They are sold at markets, used in flower arrangements. Chives also act as practical landscaping on the farm, maybe keeping away some insects or bunny rabbits, and most definitely serving as erosion prevention where they are planted. 

In the spring they come up with loads of spherical purple blossoms. 

We made a large batch of infused vinegar, nice to make oniony salad dressings for fresh greens. And, it's bright pink.

Chive Blossom Vinegar

Chive blossoms

White vinegar 

A wide container with a lid

A fine strainer

Nice clean jars to store the vinegar. 

Pick blossoms by spreading your fingers and running them through the chives, catching the blossoms. They will pop off the stalks to be caught in a fist. 

Wash the blossoms gently, bobbing up and down in a bowl of water. Or in my case, a huge sink. 

Strain blossoms, drip dry or spin in a lettuce spinner. 

Put the clean blossoms in a container where they fill up roughly 2/3 of the volume. Pour white vinegar in, to the top. Float a plate, or something, atop the flowers to keep them submerged, they will try to rise up and escape. Or, just put the lid on. 

Leave vinegar and chive blossoms together for 4 days to steep. It will turn bright pink and then a deeper magenta hue will develop. Keep covered well or you kitchen will smell strongly of onions. 

When the time has come to strain the entire project set up your fine strainer over a vessel to catch the strained vinegar. Use a funnel if you need to. I had to strain mine twice because the first strainer I chose filtered out the blossoms but not the tiny white seeds which float around. And the seeds look like wee insects if you didn't know what they were...so it's worth getting out a cheesecloth or a tea strainer for this case. 

Now you have plenty of jewel colored vinegar which is crystal clear. Put in pretty jars or mix up into salad dressing with olive oil. I'll put a recipe on here soon.