We’re back! Disney was scorching hot, utterly enchanting, completely over-crowded, and positively thrilling all rolled up into one fabulously magical package. Next time we’ll pick a much slightly less popular week to experience the house of the mouse; even if it means pulling the kids out of school for a couple days (shhh… don’t tell Nick’s teacher I said that). That being said, watching the younger set experience the wonder of it all was well worth the trouble. Especially the little ones. When my one year old niece, Taylor, met Snow White for the first time, you would have thought she’d died and gone to heaven. She ran full on into her arms and just sank into pure joy. It was enough to make the entire over-heated, impatient line of Disney goers let out a collective “awwww.” I guarantee you’ve never witnessed sheer bliss like this.
All in all it was a fun week. I have to say, though, that I am happy to be back home and back to the blog. I really missed you guys! To kick off the week I’m popping up a killer Asian Salmon burger that’s easy on the palate and doesn’t take much effort in the kitchen. The dipping sauce is the real gem in this one. Pour a little over the top of the burger and then serve a little more on the side for extra dipping. It’s as close to “one year old meets childhood idol” bliss as you can get.
To cook up a batch of burgers, you’ll first grab a pound of salmon and cut it into manageable chunks. Throw it into your food processor and pulse until you are left with no big pieces.
Next up you’ll add some Asian inspiration and mix it in by hand (or spoon if you don’t like to get your hands dirty).
Form it into four large patties and get ready to cook these beauties up. Heat a little sesame oil over an open flame and when it’s good and hot, cook up your patties until they’re a beautiful golden brown on both sides. Yum yum.
While your patties are cooking, grab up a few sauce ingredients; some mayo, sour cream, lime juice, soy sauce, ginger, and green onions. Mix it all together.
You ready for this? Toast up a bun, pop one of those beautiful salmon burgers on top, spoon a little sauce over the seafood ensemble and bite into pure bliss. Snow White would be oh so proud.
Asian Salmon Burgers with Tangy Ginger Lime Sauce
Total Time: 30 min
Ingredients:
For the Salmon Burgers:
1 Pound Salmon
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Clove Garlic
1 tsp Powdered Ginger
1 tsp Oyster Sauce
1 Green Onion, Chopped
1 Tbsp Fresh Basil, Chopped (about 5 leaves worth)
11/2 Tbsp Sesame Oil
For the Ginger Lime Sauce:
1/4 Cup Mayonnaise
2 Tbsp Sour Cream
1/2 tsp Powdered Ginger
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Green Onion, Chopped
1/4 Lime, Juiced
Directions:
Cut the salmon into large hunks and pulse it in a food processor until no large pieces remain.
Add to the salmon the soy sauce, garlic, ginger, oyster sauce, green onion, and basil.
Combine ingredients well and form 4 large patties from mixture.
Heat up the sesame oil in a large frying pan on medium high heat and add in the patties. Cook for about 10 minutes flipping once half way through.
To make the sauce, add together all the above listed ingredients and stir to combine.
Pour a spoonful of sauce over the top of the finished salmon burger and serve inside a toasted bun.
Asian Pork Salad
Before I jump into today’s recipe, I need to put a few items on the table. First up, a quick reminder that today is the last day to enter the $100 Visa card giveaway! Be sure to get your name in the hat. I’ll be announcing the winner on this post tomorrow night around 8pm with the help of random.org. And second, starting the week after Easter, I’ll be moving from three posts a week to two. Posts will mainly be published on Tuesday and Friday with an occasional extra post thrown in for good measure. With the growth of Mommie Cooks, it’s become increasingly difficult to keep up a three posts a week schedule and still have time left over to spend with my boys. I love Mommie Cooks, but family time is vital and will always come first. My hope is that dropping down to two days a week will accord me the best of both worlds; spending quality time with my family while still having the ability to participate in a community I’ve come to need and love.
UPDATE: When all was said and done, I had 169 comments to choose from. Thank you so much for all the support, you guys rock! After entering the number into random.org, the winner of the $100 Visa Gift card is…… Comment number 63!! PattyPro, congrats! I’ll be in touch through email to get your information. 🙂
Enough announcements; I’m pretty sure you’re itching to cook up a little Asian salad. I know I sure am.
…
Mahi Mahi + Salad Fixings+ Homemade Asian Dressing
Put it all together and you have One. Killer. Salad. I have to say, this was some tasty fine dinner. The inspiration for this meal actually came after a last minute decision to head to Le Peep for breakfast after church last Sunday. Going out to breakfast isn’t in our normal routine, but for some reason I was just feeling the need to partake of somebody’s cooking other than my own. And believe me, when the mommy’s got an urge for breakfast, it darn well needs to be honored in this house.
So after consuming more than a few breakfast delights and pretty much rolling ourselves out of the restaurant, my husband proclaimed that a light dinner needed to be in our future in order to counteract the pig out that so shamelessly occurred just a few minutes earlier. Hence, this delicious salad was born.
I know it’s going to sound silly, but my favorite part about this salad is the mandarin oranges. There’s just something about those little orange slices of heaven that get me every time. I could eat them straight out of the can. Ok, who am I kidding, I DO eat them straight out of the can. It’s so bad that I’ll hide them from my kids and eat them when they’re at school just so I don’t have to share. Yes, my name is Julie and I have a mandarin orange problem.
Ok, first up, the dressing. Here’s what you’ll need:
Ingredients Needed:
For the Dressing:
3 Cloves of Garlic, Minced
2 Tbsp of Fresh Ginger
1 Green Onion, Chopped
1/2 Lime, Juiced
3 Tbsp of Honey
1/2 Cup Sesame Oil
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
1/4 Cup of Soy Sauce
/4 Cup of Rice Vinegar
This dressing is so easy peasy, it make me wonder why I don’t make homemade dressing more often. You basically just take everything from the list above, throw it in a blender/processor and hit start. Bango, homemade Asian dressing.
Now, take about a half of a cup of your dressing and throw it in a gallon sized ziploc bag along with your mahi mahi. Close ‘er up, throw it in the fridge and let it marinate for at least an hour if not longer. Be sure to refrigerate your remaining dressing as well. You’ll need that again later on to slather on your finished salad; yum!
Once dinner time is upon you, grab your marinated fish and throw it on the grill until cooked through and then set to the side to keep warm.
Now you can really put anything you’d like in your salad so it is by no means a requirement to have what we used in ours (although, I might disagree with that statement when it comes to the mandarin oranges). Here’s what we threw into our salad:
Ingredients Needed:
For the Salad:
1 Bag of Spinach
1 Bunch of Romaine
1 Handful of Carrots, Chopped
1/2 Pint of Cherry Tomatoes, Halved
1 Handful of Sliced Mushrooms
1 Can of Mandarin Oranges, Drained and Rinsed
1 Small Cucumber, Sliced (or in our case, 1/4 of a really LARGE cucumber)
2/3 Cup of Crumbled Blue Cheese
Throw all your salad fixings in a bowl and voila! Isn’t that beautiful?
To plate your dinner, grab the a plate of salad, toss in a little (or a lot depending on your tastes) dressing and throw a mahi mahi fillet on top. And that’s all there is to it! Grab your wine, grab your salad and enjoy every. last. bite. of your creation. I know we did!
