The other side of Salmon

In my last post I wrote about the apex of salmon products. Here I will briefly write about two acceptable recipes for the cat food of salmon --- canned salmon (nb: this is not actually cat food, but rather I mean to say this is the lowest grade of fish sold for humans). This stuff is super cheap. Its even cheaper than Chinatown fish. Plus, if you get the good stuff (and by good I mean nastiest) it will come with skin and bone. There is a plus to this however. The bones in the salmon have had ample time to soften, and can be eaten without any difficulty. This, in fact, provides you with a really great source of calcium, which in addition to the protein etc of the salmon is a homerun nutrients-wise.
Still... the canned salmon is one of the more fishy forms of fish out there, and unless you really like that, you need to be pretty selective in the type of recipes you use this stuff in.
Here are two which I consider pretty good, the second of which I just made tonight (for the first time).

Salmon Latkas:
My grandmother makes these in the style of hamburgers, but with salmon in place of the ground meat. This is a good way to do it, but I'm going to propose another type of latka based on the "Tuna Kabobs" which my former roommates girlfriend showed me. Surprisingly the ginger/garlic/pepper flavor really goes a long way towards cutting the fishiness, and actually has a rather nice flavor.
1 can salmon
a few cloves garlic crushed and chopped
an inch cube of ginger finely chopped
ample black pepper
an egg
~Mash the salmon and mix in all ingredients, including some salt. Form into patties and fry in oil.

Pot of stuff
This recipe (aptly named for its nature) took shape while I was at a Jazz show tonight. I hadn't eaten much since lunch and so my mind flickery back and forth between Jazz, math and food. In fact I often forgot which one I was thinking about. In any case, I followed my imagined recipe through to a tee, and got a pretty good result. I'll split it up into a few small parts.

Salmon mixture:
1 can salmon mashed
3 limes juiced
1 hot pepper chopped
1 clove garlic crushed and chopped
Mix everything together and let the salmon sit in the mixture until most of the fishiness has departed.

Take one large sweet potato, skin and chop into 1/4 inch slices. Then cook these with a little oil in your favorite cast iron skillet until tender. Reserve and once cooled chop into inch by inch squares.

1 large onion
6 cloves of garlic
1 hot pepper
cumin powder
1 can salsa
1 can tomato sauce
1 can black beans
1 can pink kidney beans
1 head cabbage
1.5 cups of brown rice
First cook the rice in the microwave for like 25 minutes. It will be almost done but still a little tough. Meanwhile chop the onion and garlic and pepper and cook in a large pot with some oil until a little translucent. Add a teaspoon or so of cumin. Then add in both cans of beans plus the salsa. While this cooks, chop the cabbage and slowly add it into the pot, so that it comes into contact with the surface. Add some salt. The cabbage will cook down pretty fast. Add in the rice, plus the tomato sauce. Cook all of this together until the cabbage has cooked down. Then add in the sweet potato squares and the salmon mixture. Mix thoroughly.
I ate this today in a soft tortilla which I heated on my cast iron. It was a pretty nice dish and super good for you. The lime really neutralizes the salmon fishiness, and the brown rice gets cooked tender. The flavors are not amazing though, but it makes for a nice warm meal none-the-less.