salmon and mixed greens pita

• leftover salmon cakes
• leftover tarragon sauce
• mixed greens
• whole wheat pita

Crumble salmon cakes with a fork. Combine salmon bits and greens in pita, drizzle with sauce.

The dish: Leftovers are great, "planned overs" are even better. Getting two meals from cooking once is never bad, but if they can be two different meals then that's all the better. This particular dish requires a bit of finesse as it's very difficult to have a condo full of people and be able to hide extras of a dish that everyone likes. Let's just say that Kim and I worked on our parental distractions (Wii) in advance and a few extra cakes were able to find their way into a Tupperware (It's not disrespecting the trademark if you use the real deal) in the fridge before anyone knew there were any left. Before you give me a hard time about being a bad host, remember, this was an appetizer, followed by a salad before the meal even began. Anyway, with the 1,000 or so milliliters of pinot griogio that was floating around no one seemed to mind too much of anything.

salmon cakes over creamy corn in a tarragon sauce

• 1.5 pounds salmon (fresh, frozen, or canned will work)
• 1 egg
• bread crumbs
• fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 bag frozen sweet corn
• garlic, chopped
• heavy cream
• Dijon mustard
• fresh tarragon, chopped fine

To make the sauce, whisk together about equal parts mustard and cream. Add tarragon and refrigerate. Chop salmon into small pieces, mix together with egg, bread crumbs and parsley. Form into cakes slightly smaller than the size of your palm. In a skillet over high heat, fry the cakes in a swirl of oil for about 1+ minute per side. Once all have been browned, transfer to a 275 degree oven in a covered dish. Meanwhile, saute the garlic (to taste) in a little olive oil over a medium high flame for about 3 minutes. Add corn and continue to cook for about 5 minutes until corn is cooked through. Reduce flame to medium and add a touch of heavy cream. Season to taste with coarse salt and pepper and add any of the parsley or tarragon if you have any left over. Assemble by placing corn on plate, placing salmon over it and drizzling it in the sauce.

The dish: Much like the crab cake sandwich I posted, these cakes are pretty forgiving about exact measurements and spices so feel free to experiment and improvise. The corn was a nice touch, but the sauce was the star of the show. I'm not sure I ever used tarragon before, but I got the idea from something I read and the result was great. To create the cool drizzle effect I used one of those plastic condiment bottles people put ketchup in for picnics and just chopped a little off the top for the herbs to flow through. You can find those at the dollar store (Sam's dollar is the best around if you're local to the New Windsor area) and they're great to have on hand for such occasions. This entry is a little out of order as the cakes were actually served as a appetizer to our meal with the rents, but whatever. You could really serve this as a main dish just by increasing the portion sizes a bit.