Irish brown soda bread with dill sauce and salmon

 

Other than potatoes, nothing is more synonymous with Irish food than brown bread. It's served with most every meal for most every occasion. Filled with whole grains and oats, it's a healthy bread to serve your family and perfect for St. Patrick's Day.

Brown bread is a "quick bread," which means it doesn't have yeast. Its leavening comes from baking soda and buttermilk, hence the name "soda bread." Soda breads became popular in Ireland when baking soda was introduced in the 19th century because it was cheaper than yeast.

Here are some tips to ensuring your bread turns out well:

• Make sure your baking soda is still active by adding 1/2 teaspoon baking soda to a couple tablespoons of vinegar. The mixture should fizz. You need to buy new baking soda if it doesn't.
• Use weight to get precise ingredient measurements.s
• Do not over mix. It will make the quick bread tough. Mix the wet ingredients separately from the dry ingredients and combine the two only to the point that the dry ingredients are moistened.
• Grease the loaf pan really, really well. The bottom has a tendency to stick.
• Baking soda activates as soon as it's mixed with an acid, so the bread needs to be put in the oven immediately.

The bread is often served with dill sauce and gravlax as an appetizer, but lox or smoked salmon work just as well. Curious about the difference. Here is a great explanation.

Irish brown soda bread with dill sauce and salmon

Yield: 1 loaf, about 12 slices

Time: About 45 minutes

Ingredients

For the bread

• 150 grams whole wheat flour
• 100 grams rolled oats
• 4 grams (1 teaspoon) baking soda
• 3 grams (1/2 teaspoon) kosher salt
• 240 milliliters (1 1/4 cups) buttermilk
• 30 grams (2 Tablespoons) molasses
• 28 grams (2 Tablespoons) melted butter, cooled

For the dill sauce

• 30 grams (2 Tablespoons) dijon mustard
• 30 grams (2 Tablespoons) sour cream
• 15 grams (1 Tablespoon) whole grain mustard
• 15 milliliters (1 Tablespoon) white wine vinegar
• 5 grams (1 teaspoon) molasses
• 20 grams shallot, minced
• 10 grams fresh dill fronds, minced
• For serving: lox, gravlax, or smoked salmon

Directions

For the bread

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease an 8½ x 4½ x 2½-inch loaf pan and set aside.
2. In large bowl, mix flour, oats, salt, and baking soda.
3. In separate bowl, mix buttermilk, molasses, and melted butter.
4. Make well in center of flour mixture, and pour buttermilk mixture into well
5. Gently mix dry and wet ingredients together, being careful not to overmix.
6. Scrape dough into bread pan and smooth top. Pan will be filled halfway.
7. Place in oven and bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until internal temperature registers around 190 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove from pan and cool on rack.

For the dill sauce

1. Mix both mustards and sour cream. Mix in vinegar and molasses. Add shallot and dill fronds.
2. Serve by spreading layer of dill sauce onto slice of brown bread. Top with salmon slices.

Salmon burgers with lemon-dill feta sauce

 

This is a sponsored post by Challenge butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!

I’ve been experimenting with a lot of unique burger recipes throughout the past year, mostly inspired by Trader Joe’s impressive selection. I love their shrimp burgers because you can see and taste big chunks of shrimp—the seafood isn’t all ground into a paste. On the other hand, the salmon burgers are kind of subpar. They look like pink hockey discs all stuck together. So I wanted to make my own salmon burger that tasted fresh with a lot of texture and flavor.

My main goal when developing the salmon burger recipe was to eliminate filler as much as possible to allow for the salmon flavor to shine through. That’s why I didn’t use any bread crumbs or mayo. I used a little Greek yogurt and egg instead. That way the salmon binds together, but still remains light and tender. The only other ingredients are fresh herbs and some seasonings. 

I’ve seen two methods for making salmon burgers: starting with raw salmon or starting with cooked / canned salmon. I prefer to use raw salmon because I think the patties come together with less filler more easily, and I like to be able to control the texture of the salmon.

To get the best texture and mouth-feel for these salmon burgers, I prefer to combine everything except the salmon in the food processor. The last thing I add is the salmon, and I hit pulse until everything is combined. I pulse it instead of blending it so that it doesn’t all turn into a paste. If you don’t have access to a food processor, you can chop the salmon into fine pieces.

The herbs and seasonings are customizable depending on your taste preferences. I chose parsley, dill, and oregano to complement the lemon, dill, and feta spread I made to go with it. Ever since my friend Emily told me she likes to serve her shrimp burgers with whipped feta, I’ve been dreaming about creating a similar spread for salmon burgers.

The combination of lemon and dill with feta really brighten the flavor of the salmon. The salty-tangy combination tastes really fresh, and it’s absolutely perfect for summer. And of course I used Challenge cream cheese because they use real milk, cream, and natural ingredients, and nothing beats the superior flavor and ultra smooth finish. Honestly, I make this sauce pretty much every week because it tastes great on everything: sandwiches, crackers, vegetables, by the spoonful, etc.

Also, please take note that this recipe makes 8 decently large burgers (about 3.5 inches in diameter and 3/4 inch thick). You can certainly cook all 8 burgers, or you can do what I like to do and freeze half of them uncooked. I made the recipe with such a large yield because I hate it when you spend a ton of time making something only to get 4 servings.

Salmon burgers with lemon-dill feta sauce

Yield: Makes 8 burgers

Ingredients

For the lemon-dill feta sauce

• 1 (8-ounce) block feta cheese
• 4 ounces Challenge cream cheese
• 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 Tablespoons dill, chopped
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• Salt, to taste

For the salmon burgers

• 1/4 cup dill
• 1/4 cup parsley
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt, plain
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 pounds raw, wild salmon, skin and bones removed, cut into chunks
• Toppings such as lettuce, onions, tomatoes
• Optional: 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

Directions

For the lemon-dill feta sauce

1. Blend feta cheese and cream cheese in food processor until smooth 
2. Add everything else and blend until combined
3. Taste sauce and adjust salt and seasonings as necessary
4. Place sauce in bowl and wipe out food processor because you’ll use it for burgers

For the salmon burgers

1. Combine herbs, Greek yogurt, eggs, and seasonings in food processor.
2. Add salmon to food processor and pulse until everything is combined. Be careful not to over-process.
3. Cover and place in refrigerator for about a half hour (or up to 24 hours in advance).
4. Form the mixture into 8 patties that are about 3 inches in diameter and 3/4 inch thick (I used an ice cream scoop to portion).
5. Refrigerate at least 15 minutes to allow the patties to firm up before cooking.
6. OPTIONAL: Add panko bread crumbs to shallow bowl and coat salmon burgers in panko before cooking for crispy exterior.
7. Grill the patties on medium heat for about 4 minutes per side or cook in skillet on stove for same amount of time until inside registers between 120 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. (USDA requires salmon to register 145 degrees Fahrenheit, but that’s for well-done fish and salmon will continue to cook even after it’s removed from heat source)
8. Assemble salmon burgers by spreading lemon-dill feta sauce on both the top and bottom buns. Place lettuce and burger on bottom bun with salmon burger. Add any additional toppings and close with other half of bun.

Puff pastry and lox

This is a sponsored post by Challenge Butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!

I love eating bagels and lox for breakfast on special occasions, and recently on a trip to Trader Joe's, I noticed they had Everything But the Bagel Seasoned Smoked Salmon. The product was practically shouting at me to use it for a bagels and lox brunch.

Sometimes I think bagels are too heavy, and they overpower the thinly sliced salmon and light, whipped cream cheese. As I thought about it, I realized serving it on puff pastry would be a good solution.

Before baking the puff pastry, I brushed egg wash on top, poked it with a fork a few times to prevent it from puffing up too much, and sprinkled Everything But the Bagel Seasoning from, you guessed it, Trader Joe's on top. If you don't live near a Trader Joe's, you can purchase the seasoning on Amazon., or the Food Netwok has a recipe for it here.

Since puff pastry is pretty delicate and flaky after it's baked, I wanted to make sure the cream cheese spread onto it smoothly. Using a mixer, I beat together my favorite Challenge cream cheese with a little bit of sour cream so it was less dense. I also added a little chopped dill and garlic powder to the mixture to jazz it up.

Once I spread the cream cheese mixture onto the puff pastry, I topped it with Everything But the Bagel Seasoned Smoked Salmon, red onion, thinly sliced lemon, capers, dill, and chives. You can customize this dish with whatever toppings you desire. Avocado, cucumber, arugula, and other pickled vegetables might be good additions, too!

I used Challenge cream cheese for this recipe because I appreciate that the company uses hormone-free milk from local dairies, resulting in all-natural and high-quality products. 

Side note: I recently found out that smoke salmon and lox are actually not the same. Essentially, smoked salmon is smoked after it is cured, whereas lox is cured but not smoked. Technically, this recipe should be named "Puff pastry and smoked salmon," but I wanted the title to be a play on "bagels and lox."

Puff pastry and lox

Ingredients
For the dill cream cheese spread

• 8 ounces Challenge cream cheese, room temperature
• 4 ounces sour cream
• 4 Tablespoons dill, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

For the pastry

• 1 sheet puff pastry (Wewalka is my favorite because it's refrigerated, not frozen)
• Egg wash (1 egg, 1 Tablespoon water, mixed together)
• 2 Tablespoons Everything But the Bagel Seasoning
• 4 ounces smoked salmon, or lox
• 1/4 cup red onion, sliced
• 3 Tablespoons capers
• 1/4 lemon, very thinly sliced
• 2 Tablespoons chives, chopped

Directions
For the dill cream cheese spread

1. Beat the cream cheese at high speed for about 3 minutes or until it's light and whipped.
2. Add sour cream and beat until smooth
3. Add dill and garlic powder and beat until combined.
4. Let sit in refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the dish.

For the pastry

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Unroll puff pastry and brush with egg wash. 
3. Use a fork to poke it a few times to prevent it from puffing too much.
4. Sprinkle Everything But the Bagel Seasoning on top.
5. Bake in oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until it starts to puff up and turns golden brown.
6. Remove from oven—you may need to poke it in the center if it puffed up too much.
7. Allow it to cool for about 10 minutes before spreading the cream cheese mixture on top.
8. Slice the smoked salmon into small pieces and evenly spread them out on top of the cream cheese mixture.
9. Add the rest of your toppings and cut into rectangular pieces. Serve immediately.

Cooking Brown Sugar Teriyaki Salmon and Asian Mixed Vegetables on Fox59

The very first recipe I ever posted on my blog was Brown Sugar Teriyaki Salmon. And this recipe is still one of my favorite and most popular recipes today!

First of all it requires ZERO cleanup. That's because it is cooked in an aluminum foil packet. So when the salmon is ready, you just serve it up and throw away the aluminum foil. You don't need to scrub any baking dishes or pans.

Cooking salmon this way is also great because you get very consistent results. The foil conducts heat well and traps steam for fast, even cooking. The salmon turns out perfectly every single time!

On Wednesday, I got to show off this recipe on Fox59! I also made Asian-mixed vegetables to go with the salmon. Before I put the salmon in the marinade, I reserved some of the marinade in a little bowl for the vegetables. When it was time to make the meal, I made the vegetables the exact same way that I made the salmon. I put a cup of vegetables in the center of the strip of aluminum foil, spooned some of the marinade on top, and folded it up to make an aluminum foil packet. The vegetables steamed to perfection in the foil packet, just like the salmon.

I hope you try this recipe, and thank you for your continued support of Kylee's Kitchen!

Brown Sugar Teriyaki Salmon with Asian-Mixed Vegetables
Printable Recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 4 (6 ounce) salmon filets​
• Vegetable medley (I used 1 large carrot, 1 head of broccoli, 1 sweet onion, and 15 ounces of sugar snap peas)

DIRECTIONS

1. Pour soy sauce, brown sugar, water, olive oil, and garlic powder in a bowl and stir to combine.
2. Pour that mixture into a gallon-size Ziploc bag, reserving one cup in a small bowl to use for your vegetables later.
3. Place the salmon in the bag, seal it, and turn it so the meaty side of the salmon is soaking in the mixture
4. Refrigerate the bag and let the salmon marinate for a minimum of 45 minutes to a maximum of about 4 hours.
5. After marinating, preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit
6. Take a big sheet of aluminum foil and fold it so it forms a little packet. Make an aluminum foil packet for each individual salmon filet.
7. Spray the aluminum foil packet with cooking spray
8. Put one filet in one foil packet. Do the same for each filet.
9. Now, take a sheet of aluminum foil and put about a cup of your vegetable medley in the center. 
10. Spoon about 4 spoonfuls of the reserved marinade on top of the vegetables. Fold up the aluminum foil to make another aluminum foil packet. Do that for as many cups of vegetables as you have.
11. Put the foil packets on a baking sheet to give the foil packets a sturdier foundation
12. Bake the salmon and vegetables for about 15 minutes.
13. The salmon is done when it is pale pink and flakes easily

Brown Sugar Teriyaki Salmon

Hooray for my first blog post! It took me forever to decide what I wanted to post first. I knew I wanted to post something that everyone would enjoy. So I chose... salmon! Now that may seem like a funny choice because not everyone likes salmon. They have their own opinions about it, whether they think it's too expensive, too fishy or too complicated. And that is exactly why I wanted salmon to be my first recipe. Because I am going to debunk all of those thoughts!

The first time I ever made salmon was about 2 years ago. In fact, before then I had never even been to the seafood counter, and to be honest I was kind of intimidated by the whole process. But I got my salmon filets and was very surprised that my total cost was about $10, especially considering most salmon dinners at a restaurant are around $25.

At this point in time, I still wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to cook this salmon. So I did what I do best, and decided to Google “Best Salmon Recipe Ever.” And sure enough, the second one from the top sounded pretty good to me, so that’s the one I went with.

Prior to this salmon experience, my favorite salmon ever was from The Cheesecake Factory, oddly enough. They have a miso salmon that has just a little Asian vibe to it and in a weird way it's kind of sweet and salty. Anyway, this particular recipe sounded somewhat similar with its soy sauce and brown sugar marinade.

So I made the marinade and let the salmon soak. When I was all ready to finally cook the salmon I realized the recipe said to put it on the grill. This was problematic because I certainly did not own a grill, and I wouldn’t have known how to use one even if I did.

Fortunately, a user left a comment on the recipe saying how she always cooks her salmon in foil packets in the oven. So that’s what I decided to do! And it turned out PERFECTLY!

Two years after making this dish for the first time, it is still one of my absolute favorites. I'm still amazed that it turns out perfect every single time. There’s no crossing my fingers and checking on it every 3 minutes to make sure it’s okay. I just stick the salmon in the foil, stick the foil in the oven, pull it out, and bam! Beautiful salmon.

And my personal favorite part about this recipe is that THERE’S ZERO CLEANUP! Seriously, all you do is wad up the foil packets when you’re done and toss it in the trash. It doesn’t get any easier than that! 

BROWN SUGAR TERIYAKI SALMON

Printable Recipe

INGREDIENTS

• ​1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 4 (6 ounce) salmon filets​

DIRECTIONS

1. ​Pour soy sauce, brown sugar, water, olive oil, and garlic powder in a bowl and stir to combine.
2. Pour that mixture into a gallon-size Ziploc bag.
3. Place the salmon in the bag, seal it, and turn it so the meaty side of the salmon is soaking in the mixture
4. Refrigerate the bag and let the salmon marinate for a minimum of 45 minutes to a maximum of about 4 hours.
5. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit
6. Take a big sheet of aluminum foil and fold it so it forms a little packet. Make an aluminum foil packet for each individual salmon filet.
7. Spray the aluminum foil packet with cooking spray
8. Put one filet in one foil packet. Do the same for each filet
9. Put the foil packets on a baking sheet to give the foil packets a sturdier foundation
10. Bake the salmon for about 15 minutes.
11. The salmon is done when it is pale pink and flakes easily

(This recipe is adapted from a post I found on allrecipes.com)