Cooking for Your Pet - Sensational Salmon Cakes

So this is my first installment of "Cooking for Your Pet". Rachel Ray has lots of pet-friendly recipes that are also for humans too! Periodically I'm going to start making these recipes. Last nights recipe was from my recent Rachel Ray magazine, Sensational Salmon Cakes. As you can see to the left my puppy, Miley, gives four paws up for this recipe.

The recipe is simple, canned salmon mixed with bread crumbs (I used seasoned which is not in the recipe), red pepper, egg and fresh dill (I used dried because horror! I don't really use fresh spices). Form into small patties and cook in a pan with a little vegetable oil till brown on both sides. I doubled the recipe and I'm glad I did, I only got 8 cakes as it is. I'm sure I would have only gotten about 4 if I hadn't doubled it.

Finished product (a spoiled dog's dinner)

Miley enjoying her salmon cakes

For the people's portion Rachel has a yummy sauce you can make to go on top. Mayo, lemon juice and fresh chives (yes, I used dried). It is so tangy and wonderfully complements the cakes. I doubled this recipe as well and had quite a bit leftover so we plan to grill up some fish fillets we have in the freezer and top them with the leftover sauce.

Since salmon cakes are obviously not enough for us humans, I also made a Mushroom Risotto. Let me just say that Risottos are a pain. The constant stirring for about 40 minutes is enough for me to never want to make a Risotto again. But I am lucky enough to have a wonderful husband who shares in the stirring duties.

While time consuming, this recipe is definitely worth it because this risotto is delicious! Here's how it works, you heat about 6 cups of chicken broth in a pot on low heat. You also cook the mushrooms in a little bit of olive oil till soft with juices. They ask for 2 lbs. of mushrooms and I did not feel like spending $8 on mushrooms so I bought a pound. Come to find out that other commenters on this recipe did the same thing. I really do feel that 2 lbs. would have been too many.

So you put aside the mushrooms with their juices for later. I used the same pan for cooking the mushrooms as I did the risotto and just put the mushrooms in a bowl and washed the pan. Then you cook some shallots in olive oil. This was my first time using shallots, I know Julia uses them a lot in her cooking. They remind me a lot of garlic in the way that they peel and such. Weird little onions but easy to prepare. If I prepared them right that is, I'm assuming I did.

Anyways, you cook the shallots for about a minute then add in the arborio rice. Here is where I made a stupid mistake which I did not realize till later. I measured out the rice (1 cup and a half) and left it sitting on the counter so it was ready when the time came to use it. Well, when I added the rice to the pan, I only added a cup, completely missing the half a cup. So stupid! After the rice cooks for about 3 minutes, you add 1/2 cup of dry white wine (I used cooking wine). Stir constantly till wine is absorbed. Then you add the chicken broth about 1/2 cup at a time, stirring till absorbed. Over and over again till you don't want to do it anymore, why can't this darn risotto be done! Once all the broth is added (or about 4 cups of it if you screw up and realize you never added the 1/2 cup, yes, I am still bitter thank you for asking) and has absorbed, you take the pan off the heat. Add the mushrooms and juice, parmesan cheese, butter, chives (once again I used dried), salt and pepper to taste and the result is a creamy, mushroomy (definitely not a word but I think it should be) risotto.

And for those who care, yes, the risotto came out fine even though I screwed up the measurements! The proof is shown below:

Salmon cakes with sauce, Mushroom Risotto, and once again, the infamous salad
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A side note, tonight I plan to make something from Mastering the Art of French cooking for an event going on by Champaign Taste. I found this blog while searching through cooking blogs to read. Julia Child's birthday is August 15th so Champaign Taste is holding an event for bloggers (and even non-bloggers can participate) to make one of Julia's recipes and post about it by midnight on August 13th. Then Champaign Taste will post a link to the entry on Julia's birthday, August 15th.

You can read more about the event here. I was really excited about this event as I just saw the movie and got the cookbook and have really been in to the whole Julia thing. Heck, its the reason I started this blog! Anyways, look for my entry tomorrow.