Salmon Quinoa Cakes

We love pulses and grains in our house and not because we are trendy, hippy or health freaks, as you will gather from all the cake recipes on my blog. Although I have been know to pass through all those phase at on point in time! We eat pulses because they are a great vessel for flavours and bring new texture to dishes. We often swap a spicy lentil braise for spuds and there is nothing more satisfiying than a bean and sausage casserole bubbling away on a winter’s evening but as the saying goes “you can take the lass out of Liverpool but not the Liverpool out of the lass” and therefore I will always crave a ‘chip butty’ with lashings of butter and fluffy white bread now and don’t forget the side of mushy peas. There are a lot of quinoa burger recipes out there but I doubt I would get hubby to enjoy a ‘pure’ one without a little of something extra in it and I don’t mean his favourite malt whiskey either. My quinoa cakes have a good dose of lime, fresh coriander and soy to boost the flavour and compliment the salmon. Serve the salmon quinoa cakes with a fresh mint yoghurt and a fennel and raw courgette salad dressed with a simple lime juice, olive oil and salt dressing.

Ingredients
Make 6-8 small cakes
50g Quinoa (I used mixed coloured grain)
200g Pacific salmon fillet, skinned & pin boned
2 Tbsp cornmeal (or breadcrumbs)
handful fresh coriander, finely chopped
handful fresh parsley, finely chopped
zest & juice of 1 lime
1Tbsp soy sauce
1 clove garlic, finely chopped or crushed
2 small free range eggs

Method
Put the quinoa grains into a pan with 3 cups of water, bring to the boil then simmer for 8 mins until the quinoa tail sprouts and the grains are soft but still have a bite.
Drain and cool quinoa place in a large bowl.
Cut the salmon into 1 inch squares and place in bowl with quinoa.
Add all the other ingredients to the bowl and stir through, it will be a little liquidly from the eggs.
Place a large frying pan over a low heat, I prefer to use a cast iron pan.
Add a splash of oil to the frying pan.
To make the cakes a nice shape use a cookie cutter and place it in your pan.
Add approx 2 tablespoons of mixture into the cookie cutter and cook for half a minute so the egg seals the bottom then remove cookie cutter carefully. The mixture should hold.
Repeat to form 4-6 cakes, depending on the size of your pan. You want to have enough space to flip them over so less is better and make two batches.
Once the cakes have cooked for about 3 minutes you will see they start to firm up from the base and the salmon turns pale pink and cooked.
Gently flip the cakes over, any mixture that falls away push back into the cake, it will re-set as the egg cooks on the second side.
Cook second side 3 minutes, both sides should be golden.
Remove from the pan and repeat with rest of mixture.
Serve warm.

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