La petite biscotte Now in Munich…

Bento n°10: Salmon Cakes & Simmered Sweet Potatoes

Contents

• Rice sprinkled with toasted black sesame seeds
• Salmon cakes
• Simmered Sweet Potatoes
• Green beans
• Quick carrot pickles

What I liked about this bento

The bento was put together rather quickly and pretty much everything is easy to make: While I put the rice to cook I used the steaming container that came with the rice cooker and steamed the green beans at the same time. Then I cut the carrots in julienne stripes with my kitchen mandolin, salted them and put them aside. After that I diced the sweet potatoes and put them in a little pan with water. While the potatoes were simmering I put together to batter for the salmon cakes and cooked them in a pan. Once that was done, everything else was pretty much done as well and I could fill my bento box.
I liked the taste of the salmon cakes and for myself I packed 2 salmon cakes cut in a half. The above pictured bento was for hubby. The vegetables gave the whole thing a nice balance and the meal didn’t feel too heavy.

What I didn’t like about this bento

Sweet potatoes were a little overcooked, going to cook them a less next time. The salmon cakes were somewhat too big for my taste and the pan that I used to make them in was simply not suited. It didn’t distribute the heat equally so the cakes were dark brown on one side and not brown at all on the other side. Lastly I hoped that the sweet potatoes would be yellow rather than orange but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. They pretty much look like carrots but oh well :p

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Recipes:

Quick carrot pickles

Ingredients

• 2 large carrots
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp mirin
• 1 tsp soy sauce

Cut the carrots in julienne stripes, add the salt and mix well. Put the carrots aside for 30 mintues.
Drain the carrots from the salty liquid and rinse them.
In a small bowl combine vinegar, mirin and soy sauce. Add the marinade to the carrots and let infuse anywhere between 5 minutes and 3 hours (depending on how much time you have).
Serves 2.

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Salmon Cakes

• 60g smoked salmon
• 1 green onion
• 2 buns, bagels or large slices of bread (can be old)
• 1 tsp of Dijon mustard
• 3 eggs
• salt, pepper

If the bread isn’t dry yet: cut it in small dice and layer a baking tray with cookie sheet. Spread the bread crumbs on the sheet and put in the oven at approximately 150°C for 8-10 minutes.
In the meantime: chop the salmon finely and slice the green onion.
Remove the bread crumbs from the oven and crush them with a heavy bottle.
In a medium sized bowl combine the onion the salmon and the bread crumbs. Beat the eggs a little and add them. Also add the mustard and salt/pepper to taste. Mix everything well until you have a nice firm batter that can be shaped.
Should the batter be too liquid, gradually add flour to thicken the batter until it reaches the desired consistency.
In a large pan heat 3 Tbsp of olive oil. Meanwhile shape 5-6 round cakes from the batter and lay them on a cutting board.
Once the oil is hot turn the heat to medium low and cook the salmon cakes in the pan until they are golden brown on both sides.

Makes 5-6 cakes, enjoy!