Gwyneth Paltrow’s Salmon Burgers

Our house, so neat and tidy when we arrived Sunday afternoon, is now trashed. We seemed to have carried three million loads of stuff from the RV into the house. Okay, maybe I am exaggerating a bit... but still, it is amazing how much junk a couple can accumulate/seem to need over seven months time. Especially clothes, since we went from freezing to tropical on this adventure. Where are we going to put all this stuff?

The motorhome is clean and has been returned to her practically unnecessary storage garage. Now, I need to reorganize my desk and get things sorted and tidied again. No hurry.

I arrived home from our long winter away to find a package from The Lovely Lisa - my Mother's Day gift! Lisa has been loving her copy of film star Gwyneth Paltrow's new cookbook, It's All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great, and thought I would enjoy trying some of the recipes as well. Poor Little Gwynnie is getting razed by foodies (here, here, and especially here) about her diet and lifestyle, but I think peeps should just leave the girl alone. Sure, most people can't afford to spend the money Ms. Paltrow slurges per month day on food, but she is trying to feed her family healthy foods. Every household has their own "food rules" - we eat no pork, shellfish or non-kosher animals at our house - and every family has their kitchen quirks. If she can get her kids to eat and love healthy wholesome foods (instead of packaged fluorescent-orange mac & cheese), more power to her. Not to mention, girlfriend looks great!

Lisa, Lenny - and even Little Leo - just love the Salmon Burgers with Pickled Ginger and Coriander from page 128 of the cookbook, so that is the first recipe I tried. (I followed the directions exactly, though made a half-recipe to serve two people.) Pretty easy, but it requires a food processor, so may not be RV-friendly. However, you could certainly make the burgers at home and bring them along on a weekend camping trip, as Ms. Paltrow recommends letting the formed burgers refrigerate for one to 24 hours before grilling.

Directions call for cubing the salmon and placing the fish (and your food processor!) in the freezer for 15 minutes so the salmon with grind-up chunky (think steak tartar), not gummy. A mixture of pickled (sushi) ginger, red onion, cilantro leaves, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and pepper is also put through the food processor and then mixed into the ground salmon. Finally the mixture is formed into patties and grilled, with a little oil coating each patty. Gwyneth Paltrow does not offer the recipe on her website, but I found it onGirlChef.com.

The burgers are served on a bun with a really lovely sauce consisting of mayo, Sriracha, maple syrup and lime juice.

My Personal Grill Master (hey, Gwynnie isn't the only one with live-in help) cooked the salmon patties over a hot (gas) fire on the back deck.

The burgers were firm, had a pretty color and smelled divine. I used wild line-caught pacific Coho salmon, priced at $18 per pound... but it was worth it, because the fishmonger removed the skin/bones for me, "free".

Verdict: Definitely would make the burgers again. No need to change a thing. I was surprised about the maple syrup in the sauce. Just a dab, but we could really taste the maple flavor, sense the sweetness and it was a strangely great compliment to the spicy chili sauce. Next time, I might lose the carby-part and just serve the grilled patty on a bed of organic mixed greens and drizzle the sauce over. 

Now that would be really good.

Until my next update, I remain, your "It's All Good" correspondent.