Fish Market: Fresh Salmon Cakes!

Posted on 3 May 2008 under Fish, Michigan Cuisine, Shopping | No Comments


Click on any of these three photos for a larger version.

Oh yeah, these were tasty!

While shopping with my son this morning we almost drove past The Fish Market on Telegraph just south of the state line … again. I say “again” because I drive by the darn place all the time without stopping in. And “almost” because this time, I didn’t get that far.

And really, I should be stopping in more. Our friends Steve and Denise own the place, and Steve was in there today. The Fish Market has by far the best, the freshest seafood and seafood creations in all of SE Michigan and NW Ohio combined. And since Steve and Denise live right here in Luna Pier, we should certainly support their business much more than we do.

I decided to browse for something for lunch for Aaron and I. There were all kinds of crab cakes, lobster-stuffed salmon pinwheels, oysters on the half shell, Alaskan king crab (yeah, that Deadliest Catch stuff from the Bering Sea) … Lots of good choices in Steve’s shop today.

What caught my eye were these salmon cakes. At 99 cents each for about a 1/4 lb patty, getting ten of them was easy. They just needed to be sautéed in a pan with a little olive oil and with a bit of rice, they’d be a good lunch for Aaron and I.

And man, were they ever good! They have a rich salmon flavor that only comes out when they’re sautéed like this for a bit until the surface is a golden-brown. They hold together amazingly well, and are perfect by themselves … no bun, definitely no tarter sauce … not even a touch of lemon. These are just damn good.

There’s six more in the freezer. I know what I’m having for lunch this week.

I know I posted this recipe recently, but because of these nice salmon cakes I just have to post it again. Enjoy!

Barb’s Salmon Patties
Makes 4 salmon patties

Ingredients
1 lb fresh salmon, baked or grilled, cooled
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup low-salt saltine crackers, crushed
1/3 cup green onions, thinly-sliced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground pepper
olive oil (for cooking)

Flake the salmon. With the exception of the olive oil, combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl, mixing well. Divide into four portions and make patties 3/4″ thick.

Heat a non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Add a couple tablespoons olive oil and allow to get hot without the oil smoking. Add the patties; cook for three minutes on each side. Serve as desired.

Road Trip! Ohio City Pasta in Cleveland

Posted on 22 April 2008 under Photos, Restaurant Chit-Chat, Shopping | 3 Comments


Click on either of these top two images for a larger version.

What’s seriously annoying is going on a food-related road trip, getting to where I need to be, seeing mounds of fresh food everywhere … and not being able to eat any.

Yeah, that would have been today. Mountains of freshly-made mushroom ravioli … and I mean absolute mounds of the stuff … and not a single pot of boiling water anywhere.

That just sucks.

Oh yeah, the shirt the young man making the pasta was wearing had the pasta’s cooking instructions printed on the back. But could I so much as practice?? Nooooo … sorry, no can do.

What you’re seeing in these top two photos is the manufacturing kitchen at Ohio City Pasta. Located in the Old City area just east of Cleveland overlooking Lake Erie, these folks staff this facility 24/7 to keep up with orders from multiple restaurants in multiple states. You may have had some of the pasta from Ohio City Pasta in a restaurant and not even known it. And if you get a chance to visit the West Side Market in the same Old City area you can purchase their pasta for your own kitchen at home.

I’ll tell you what, this is some darn good stuff. If you can’t get to a restaurant serving Ohio City Pasta products, get over to the West Side Market on Mondays or Wednesdays and get some of your own. I’m not so sure, though, that if you ask for cooking directions they’ll give you the shirts off their backs. In fact I’ll hasten to say it:

Probably not.

Executive Chef Tad Cousino of the Frog Leg Inn in Erie, Michigan is
seen below visiting with the staff at the Ohio City Pasta stand at the
West Side Market in Cleveland.

Review: Half-Moon Meat Ravioli from Pierino, Lincoln Park, Michigan

Posted on 6 January 2008 under Michigan Cuisine, Reviews: Products, Shopping | 3 Comments

I really like a simple, well-made pasta that’s been made from scratch. That’s not to say I won’t open a box of macaroni, cook it off and serve it with a little butter. But when it’s raw pasta that hasn’t been dried and has been made well, people seem to just like it better. The Amish-made noodles in my Traditional Chicken Noodle Soup is part of what makes the soup so darn good, and subsequently, so popular (Adam and I are gearing up to make a double batch of the stuff this morning). Over at the Frog Leg Inn, Chef Tad serves an exceptional Smoked Mozzarella Ravioli, “Homemade roasted red pepper ravioli stuffed with mozzarella cheese and tossed in a tempting roasted red pepper cream sauce.” And I’ll tell you what, even the ravioli at Olive Garden aren’t too shabby.

I know, I know, your kids like that stuff from the can. They’ll eat it by the bowlful … the canful … the snootful. If there was a restaurant that served that stuff, if someone at a family potluck were to bring a hotel pan they’ve dumped #10 cans of the stuff into and heated over water warmed by lit Sterno cans, your kids and your couch potato husband will be back for thirds or fourths.

So, what if … you were able to get restaurant-quality ravioli, and there were a bunch of different varieties to try out with your family, all without having to go to a restaurant supply store, just getting them with your regular groceries … and they were made in Michigan by a family-owned company that’s been around for decades?

That’s exactly the line of thought I was having when I spotted these Pierino Halfmoon Meat Ravioli at Kroger.

Ok, not really … I was thinking, “Dang, these look interesting … I wonder if they’re any good? Maybe if I had a sauce with, like, some wine it it, even if they’re bad nobody will really notice. Let’s see, where were they … oooo, they’re made in Lincoln Park, Michigan … Honey, it’s for the blog!”

How are the Pierino Halfmoon Meat Ravioli? Let’s put it this way; Each of the packages you see here is one pound, with about 29 ravioli in each package. Six of us ate dinner last night, Mary, my four kids and myself. When I asked Adam to put dinner away, he came back with, “Shouldn’t somebody just eat these last four ravioli instead??”

That’s right. Between the six of us we finished off all four pounds.

Following the instructions on the package, I boiled the frozen ravioli in some water with a bit of Kosher salt in it. For four pounds of ravioli, there was a lot of water! But the ravioli were still done in the specified 10 minutes. To keep it simple, we topped the Pierino Halfmoon Meat Ravioli with some Bertolli Marinara with Burgundy Wine, some fresh minced garlic, shredded parmesan and some chopped chives, along with having some commercial garlic toast alongside.

Sure, I could have made a marinara sauce myself, and I probably could have put together a simple garlic bread. But we had a lot of things going on yesterday. Putting dinner together this way took very little time, and was still very good indeed.

Interestingly enough, the lady in the checkout line ahead of us yesterday had also picked up some Pierino products, a couple packages of their Cappelletti with Cheese along with some jarred pasta sauce. She was also trying them for the first time, hoping it would be good.

It probably was.

Pierino Frozen Foods are going to be regular items on our shopping list from now on. Their Tortellini with Cheese looks really good. I wonder if I can snag some of Chef Tad’s red pepper cream sauce to go with it …

Article: ‘Half of Farmer Jack stores have no buyers’

Posted on 31 December 2007 under Food In The News, Shopping | No Comments

While not mentioning the closed Farmer Jack location on Telegraph and M-50 in Monroe, Saturday’s article in the Detroit Free Press does mention a few things that might not be well-known:

33 of the 66 stores that were up for sale remain without buyers, and some of the purchased ones aren’t open yet … Kroger, which bought 20 stores, has opened all but one … Hiller’s is busy remodeling the store it bought in Commerce Township … It takes about $10 million to open a store … The potential for a sale, however, depends on whether the buyer thinks he or she will get a good return on the investment … In Toledo, a family business that acquired a Farmer Jack six months ago closed its doors this month. The store was losing more than $100,000 a month, according to a Toledo Blade report.

Sarah’s Recent Gig: ErieIGA.com

Posted on 19 December 2007 under BlogsMonroe, Shopping | 2 Comments

Sarah over at the Birth and Babies and Home Life blogs has given birth again! No, I don’t mean that way … This time it’s a new web site for Erie IGA, which Sarah’s designed. We shop at Erie IGA regularly (last night’s dinner was a braised sirloin tip roast I’d picked up out of their meat case), and the guys are rather happy about the work Sarah’s done for them. Some of the store’s standard grocery items might be a touch higher than most, but their meat department is one of our favorites, with its available meat packages and wonderful marinated items. Couple this with fresh subs and pizzas made in a separate kitchen designed for that purpose (delivery is available) and their extensive beer and liquor selection, and Erie IGA easily becomes one of the nicer small grocers in Monroe county.

Nice work, Sarah!

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