Ginger Scallion Salmon Burgers

Ah, Memorial Day...  the unofficial start of summer!  which means, along with the fantastic weather, we start grilling regularly again - yay!

The latest issue of Real Simple has the entire recipe section dedicated to summer grilling - they have some really fantastic looking burgers and sides - and not just ground beef burgers, but also pork burgers, lamb burgers, turkey burgers, mushroom burgers, and salmon burgers.  I'll admit that we've already tried the pork burgers (we sometimes get ground pork with our meat co-op, but often have a hard time figuring out what to make with it.  We also sometimes get ground lamb - same story - not sure what to do with it besides a shepherd's pie)  So I'm pretty excited to try a few more.  Besides the burgers, this issue also has 10 ideas for barbecue sides.  For tonight, I chose salmon burgers and a side of marinated zucchini.

Table
I think because this recipe is still new, it's not yet listed on the Real Simple website.  It is in the June 2013 issue and will probably be posted there in the near future.  I must be on an Asian kick, because I just recently did a blended Thai Gingery Peanut Noodles recipe, and this salmon burger has a decidedly Asian flavor.  But the burgers also do kind of remind me of crab cakes, and the jalapeno in the carrot slaw certainly gives it a nice kick. (of course you can skip the pepper, if you prefer, but why would you???)

Here's the ingredients for the burgers:
1 1/4 pounds skinless salmon fillet, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 T finely grated fresh ginger
2 scallions, chopped
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1 large egg
salt & pepper

Basically, you put all that in a bowl, and mix it together with your hands - kinda like making meat loaf.

Then you form it into patties, refrigerate, and then grill.  (makes 4 patties) and add to some big buns (we chose whole wheat).

On top of the burger is a carrot slaw.  Here are the ingredients for the slaw:
2 medium carrots, grated
1/2 jalapeno pepper, chopped
2 t rice vinegar
1 t canola oil
salt & pepper

Just combine all those ingredients together and refrigerate for a while.

So here are my thoughts on making this recipe:

Salmon: Try and get an already deboned salmon.  The fillet I got was not deboned, so I spent a lot of time picking out the little bones... I was trying to be thrifty and save a couple bucks... not worth it.  Surely 10 minutes of my time is worth $2, right?

Panko bread crumbs: I was able to find these in a whole wheat version.  Adds some whole grains to the mix

Carrots: I was a little smart with these and bought the pre-grated carrots.  I'm not sure if there's much of a price difference, but at least I didn't have to peel and grate.

Side Dish: The marinated raw zucchini dish is really good and tastes a lot like seaweed salad from a sushi restaurant.  However, to prepare the dish, I used a vegetable peeler to thinly slice the zucchini.  This makes a really pretty salad, but gets a little hard when you get to the end of the zucchini.  Rather than try to slice the whole zucchini up, I just sliced a little more than half of it for the salad and threw the parts I couldn't peel without slicing my fingers off into the blender.

Tube
The blenderized version of this recipe is pretty easy.  I just threw a whole made up burger (salmon, carrot slaw, and bun) into the blender with the juice, fruit, and zucchini bits.  Then added the oil, calcium and vitamins.  As usual, I suggest mixing those ingredients up before adding the milk and kefir to avoid getting too foamy of a mix.  By the way, I doubled this recipe when I made it, thanks to my giant Wildside pitcher for the Blentec.

To be honest, I spilled some of the blend on the counter as I was pouring it into the carafe we use to store the blend in our refrigerator, so I'm not 100% sure on the total volume, but it was at least 32 oz, plus a little more.  What can I say, I'm a little bit of a mess sometimes.

The blend came out a nice thin consistency, so it will be really easy to bolus plunge.  It also came out with a little bit different nutrition content than my typical blends - lower carb content, and higher protein content than usual.  But the calories per unit volume still came out at pretty much my typical 1.2 cal/cc.

Here's the g-tube blenderized recipe:

Whole Milk	1 cup
Flavored Kefir - 1% milkfat	1/2 cup
Apple cranberry juice	1/2 cup
diced pears in light syrup	4 oz
Ginger scallion salmon burger	1 serving
zucchini	3 oz
Canola Oil	3 T
Children's Multivitamin	1/2 tablet
calcium chews supplement	1/2 chew
Volume (oz)	35
Cal/oz	36.1
Cal/cc	1.2
% Fat	24%
% Carbohydrates	48%
% Protein	28%

As a side note, Morty has been doing a lot better at oral feeding.  Of course, he doesn't get a whole lot of calories in, but he's enjoying it a lot more, and gagging a LOT less.  I got him some of those yogurts packaged in tubes, and he loves the novelty of eating out of the tube!