Salmon Burgers on Polenta with Zucchini and Mozzarella Slices

I really hate to winge...ok...revise that...I hate to engage in excessive whingeing.  But sometimes, just the right amount of whingeing is exacty that's needed.  And right now, I need to whinge about the status of my life in general.  In 14 days movers are showing up at our house to move us to a new apartment and that's very exciting!  It's getting through the next 14 days that requires the whinge.

The house is a wreck with half-packed things strewn across every available surface and an enormous pile of boxes blocking all of the natural light in the kitchen/dining room.  (Having a separate kitchen and dining room is one of the things I'm excited about for of the new apartment.)  I keep suggesting that we just hire a dumpster and rid ourselves of all most of this stuff, but the Hubs isn't taking that suggestion nearly as seriously as I wish he would.  In fact, he keeps reminding me of things that I would miss, if I were to throw them out.  He might be right have a marginally valid point.

One of the biggest annoyances of this whole Moving Our Apartment thing is my attempts to be efficient.  I keep packing up things in the kitchen (like the cookbooks and the mandoline) that I am sure I won't need in the next 14 days, only to discover that I was wrong, I can't in fact live without those things.  But I also can't bring myself to move backwards and unpack them again.  So I'm stuck. The only solution presenting itself is to order out every night make simple food for dinner that doesn't involve a cook book or a mandoline.  Tonight's dinner fell squarely into the category of Simple Food That Doesn't Require a Mandoline. 

I picked up two salmon burgers form Whole Foods yesterday and served them with thinly sliced zucchini layered with fresh mozzarella.  Instead of using a traditional roll for the salmon burgers I placed them on grilled polenta.  Because I really don't like salmon (there, I've admitted it) I made up a simple sauce.  Since there isn't much of a recipe here to share I will give you the details for making polenta and the simple "salmon-hiding" sauce.  One of the bonuses of this meal is that I cooked nearly everything on my two-burner griddle, which meant I only needed to wash the polenta pot and the griddle.


For the polenta: the ratio is 3:1 water to coarsely ground corn meal.  The Hubs joked that I wasn't making polenta, I was making grits, a funny reference to an episode of Good Eats episode in which Alton Brown makes nearly the same joke.  The key to polenta, much like the candied pecans, is to keep stirring (although with polenta constant stirring isn't quite as crucial).  Bring the water to a boil and pour the polenta into it in a slow stream while stirring constantly (that part is important or you'll get lumps).  Bring the polenta back up to a boil and stir for 20 - 30 minutes.  The polenta will need a good amount of salt for flavor and I like to finish it with about a teaspoon of butter.  I also mixed black pepper and fresh thyme into this batch of polenta.  If you want to grill your polenta, let it cool in a separate pan; I usually pour it into a bread loaf pan.  When it was cool I cut it in half and grilled it (just to get the outside a little crispy and to give it the grill marks).  For 2 servings I used 1/2 cup of the dry corn meal.

For the zucchini: slice a small zucchini lengthwise into 4 slices (this is where an unpacked mandoline would come in very handy) and grill it on the griddle (which had been brushed with olive oil) until the zucchini has softened, about 8 - 10 minutes.  Be sure to sprinkle both sides of the zucchini with salt.  When the zucchini is cooked, layer it with slices of the fresh mozzarella and garnish with ribbons of basil.

For the sauce: Mix 2 large tablespoons of light mayonnaise with 1/2 teaspoon of Dijon mustard, 1 tsp of freshly chopped tarragon, 1/2 tsp of freshly chopped dill, 1/2 tsp lemon juice and a small pinch of salt.

And of course, cook the salmon burger on the griddle, once you've pulled the cooked zucchini and flipped the polenta.  That works out to near perfect timing because you can arrange the zucchini and mozzarella while the polenta and salmon grill. Serve the salmon burger on top of the polenta slice with the zucchini and mozzarella slices on the side.  Bon Appetit!


Serves 2- 4

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