Californian Salmon Surfboards
Your kids will be asking for surfing lessons after you make these!
Ingredients
Start with 2 to 8 ounce skinless and pin boned salmon fillets. I could have said 16 oz salmon fillets, but I find it easier to visualize serving sizes with smaller portions. I know, I’m weird. Each fillet should yield 4 to 5 strips.
¾ cup of self-rising or all-purpose flour.
3 eggs
¼ cup milk
¾ cup of panko or regular breadcrumbs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper (white pepper if you have it)
½ cup vegetable oil
For the potato wave:
4 russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
¼ cup unsalted butter
½ cup of milk or half and half
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper (white if you have it)
Blue food coloring
For the rocks in the surf:
2 bunches of green beans. Take a measuring cup or large coffee mug, and stand up the beans to fill the cup. Do this twice.
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Dash of salt
Instructions
Put your quartered potatoes in a pot with salted water and get them on the stove to boil
Cut salmon fillets into index finger width slices - as many as you can get.
Place three different bowls on your counter. Add you breadcrumbs to one, add you eggs and milk to another one, and in the last one, mix your flour and salt and pepper. Mix the eggs and milk well. Same goes for your flour, salt and pepper.
Chop the green beans into ¼ inch pieces.
When potatoes are done (fork tender) drain and return to the hot pot, and place back on the burner it came from, but turn the heat off. This is to keep the potatoes warm, and to dry them out so they’ll soak up the milk and butter.
Put the butter and milk in a small pot and bring just to a boil. Take it off the heat the second it starts to boil.
Pass your cooked potatoes through a food mill or ricer. If you don’t have that equipment, use a potato masher or hand mixer. Ultimately potatoes don’t like to get handled much, so don’t over mix or over smash your potatoes. They’ll become thick and pasty.
Once your potatoes are ready, slowly fold in your hot milk, cream and salt and pepper. Add blue food coloring drop by drop until you achieve a light blue ocean color. Fold until they’re a nice creamy consistency then taste for seasoning. Adjust if necessary. Put the mashed potatoes in a bowl that will fit into a pot that has a cup of water simmering in it. What we’re making is called a Bain Marie. It is exactly like a double boiler. It will keep your potatoes warm using moist heat instead of direct heat that can scorch or dry out your Potatoes. Cover your Bain Marie with foil.
Heat your oil in a medium – large fry pan. Heat a tablespoon of butter in another fry pan and get your chopped green beans going.
Take four salmon strips and put them in the flour mixture. Dust off any excess flour. Now put the flour-dusted strips into the egg and milk wash. Cover with egg wash, drain excess and put them in the breadcrumbs. Shake off excess breadcrumbs and put them in the hot oil. Since we are shallow frying we will have to turn the salmon sticks once. They need to cook for 2 to 3 minutes per side, or until golden brown.
Your green beans should be done by this point. Hit them with a pinch of salt, give them a toss and take them off the heat.
Plate your blue potatoes along one side of the plate, and form a wave. To do this, shape the potatoes into a long triangle, then fold the tip of the triangle over a bit to look like a breaking wave.
Place your salmon surfboards on the wave, and spread your green beans on the plate in front of the surfboards to make them look like rocks. Cowabunga, you’re done.
The kids will clear their plates faster then you can say “David Hasselhoff saved my life.”
How do you get your kids to eat fish? Share your tips in the comments below.
-Dean
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