Two from Ellie

I'm a big fan of Ellie Krieger and her book The Food You Crave. I've had some great success with the recipes and I tend to go to the book when I'm looking for a not-too-evil meal. One afternoon at lunch, when I found myself with none of my usual lunch foods available, I went to her book looking for a healthy little meal. I came up with Salmon Cakes with Creamy Ginger Sauce. A recipe using canned salmon and water chestnuts which I had in my cupboard.




If you have cats or ever owned a cat, you might have trouble with canned fish. I do. I can't get over the 9-Lives smell when I open the can. But I knew I'd be combining the fish with cilantro, whole wheat bread crumbs and green onions and making a dipping sauce. So I hoped the finished product would not be too fishy. These asian salmon cakes turned out really well. They have good flavor from the onions and the water chestnuts give them some textural interest. The sauce is made up of mostly yogurt, but a little mayo, sesame oil, soy and ginger that combine to make a nice compliment to the cakes. I used a small 7 1/2 oz can and made a quarter recipe. It produced 4 little cakes. I ate two for lunch and my husband ate the other two (with gusto!) This is also a really inexpensive dish that could easily make an economical dinner for two.

The second recipe is another cost-friendly dish that comes from Fine Cooking's latest issue #97. Ellie Krieger did an article on how to make a nutritious and tasty fried rice using brown rice. I was so happy to see her in my favorite magazine! The great thing about this Five Treasure Fried Rice is you can use up bits of things you might have hanging around in your vegetable drawer, freezer or fridge. She recommends using peeled, broccoli stems. You might also use a half a red pepper, a few carrots, some frozen corn, peas or edamame. If you had some pea pods or sugar snap peas, they would work great too. This recipe isn't vegetarian because it uses a little canadian bacon, but you could easily leave that out. There's also some egg in here for protein. But some leftover cooked chicken, pork or some cubes of firm tofu could be thrown in at the end and warmed through.

I think this rice is best served as a one-dish meal. It is filling and satisfying and has everything you need in a meal. However, today I served it as a side dish to some tilapia. The rice is a breeze to make, but some prep work is involved. There's a lot of chopping (small dice) so it isn't quick to put together. And you need to use cold rice; so it needs to be made well in advance, preferably the day before. And brown rice takes a lot of time to cook, don't forget. Also you absolutely need a 12-inch non-stick pan. If you only have a 10-inch, I'd recommend halving it. But if you make the whole recipe, you'll have a great healthy lunch for the next day.