 Hello everybody, welcome to the cooking series recipe for the cure. I'm Robin McConnell and this is my sous chef and my friend and my coworker, Pam Stoffberg. We're both oncology dieticians at the John Thorough Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center and we're joining you from our beautiful cooking studio here in the Cancer Center. Since we can't do our regular cooking studio programs in person, we were doing them weekly for the last 11 years actually, we're so excited to be able to join you virtually and continue the tradition of sharing delicious and nourishing recipes with all of you. So we want to give a special shout out to ASI for sponsoring this new program, we would not have been able to do it without you. So all of the information that you need, the recipes, the shopping lists and the nutrition information to cook along with us or if you want to take it and you know, do these recipes a little bit later are available in your confirmation email or in the link below. So what do you say we get cooking? Okay, so thank you for helping me out today, Pam. You're welcome, my pleasure. We've been doing this for a lot of years together, yes. So the recipe today is called salmon zucchini burgers and we're actually using a little bit more than zucchini, we're going to be using zucchini and also yellow squash. So we use this a lot and actually we've used this in a previous recipe in our cooking studio in a meatloaf that was made with turkey. So we're going to kind of take that same theme and we're going to add it to salmon burgers. And where this recipe came from is there's a really wonderful catering operation in my town and back in the day when we just got our cooking studio going, we were always looking for professional chefs and you know, local businesses to come in and demonstrate something that they really, you know, feel proud of. And I have been buying their salmon burgers for many years and the light bulb went off in my head saying salmon is a healthy food. I love these salmon burgers and I do remember that they were a very colorful burger so they had zucchini in them, they had yellow squash in them, there was something red in them, I wasn't quite sure what it was but I love them, they were delicious. I hounded that poor store owner to please come and do a cooking studio program and you know, I get it, it's not for everybody but you know, he politely declined and I politely walked away but I wasn't done with these salmon recipes yet. So I kept buying the salmon burgers and decided I'm going to figure out how to make these and we're going to do these in our cooking studio. So that's how this recipe came about. So I'm going to get started because they do take a little bit of time to cook. So as I mentioned, it's a very colorful burger and any time that you can stretch something out, you know, salmon is expensive and if you can stretch it out with some vegetables it's a double bonus because we're getting added nutrition, we're getting some additional color. Again, it's a very, very pretty dish. So I'm going to shred the vegetables, it's not you know, a hard and fast recipe either. So it's about a cup and a half of shredded squash, I'll call them. So we'll do some of that and some of the zucchini. You want to make sure that you're getting plenty of the skin because not only is that where the fiber and many of the nutrients reside but it is also where the color is and that's what makes everything so pretty. Now the thing about zucchini is that it's a very wet vegetable. So that does not do well in our burgers. So what we have to do is take the zucchini and the squash and I'm just going to put them in. This is a very, very fine, you could use cheesecloth, you could use unbleached muslin. This was a towel actually that I, it was very light, I actually use these towels to line my bread baskets when I'm doing my sourdough bread. And so you just want to gather it up and don't be shy but you want to really ring it out and you can see a little bit of bicep and tricep work out here. You want to really ring out as much of the water as you possibly can. Now don't throw this away because I have a bucket that I keep in my freezer, a plastic bucket that I use to put all of these vegetable juices in. I'm just going to let this sit here for a little bit. Let's wash my hands quick. I think the use of the squashes though, like you said that they were moist, excuse me, they are, but I think that they're also nice and soft unlike say a carrot that goes, it doesn't change the texture as compared to the salmon. So I think that that's like a lovely play. Right, and you wouldn't necessarily see the carrot in the salmon burger because we're using orange, you know. So but yes, it's great. So hold on to your juices, pour them into your bucket in your freezer and then when you're ready to make soup, you've got some stock. So we're going to start here. I have just a little bit of olive oil in the pan, and we're going to let that get. So we just want to soften the vegetables a little bit. So I have a small onion, I might not use all of this. So we want to just get some of the onion in there. And I will say that though I was not able to get the recipe from my local shop, I did ask him a number of pointed questions because I was curious to see, you know, what was in it and get as close as possible because I'm inventive but not that inventive. So this is actually some sun-dried, not sun-dried tomatoes. It's a roasted red pepper and I just bought a jar. And I usually keep a small jar in the, you know, in my cupboard just for such application. So I think this takes about two tablespoons of sun-dried tomato, I mean of roasted red pepper. So I'm going to cut those up, get them a little bit smaller. Add a little bit of garlic, so about a clove or a teaspoon if you're using chopped. And then you always want to be careful. You never add the garlic first to the pan unless you really want to crunch them because garlic can burn very easily and it's nice to have that little bit of a buffer. So you can already start to see that we're building a little bit of color. So I'm going to give this one quick squeeze again. More is coming out. Yeah. Now you can see that it's very colorful. So as I said, I kind of commandeered this recipe but the more times I made them just still wasn't coming out the same and I knew that there was something missing and that something missing I discovered was old bay seasoning. And it's a proprietary formula if you look online, it's hard to find the exact ingredients to it but the spices are spices and herbs including so it's red pepper and black pepper, salt and paprika. They also make a blackened version of it which I thought would be really, really nice if you wanted something like maybe with a little bit of heat because you can change this up a little bit. This old bay is absolutely the flavor of the Chesapeake Bay. That's where it's kind of originated and any fish restaurant that you would walk into down in Annapolis or the Baltimore area, it absolutely hits you in the face and you're like, ah, fish, delicious. No, it's like a crab cake, couldn't even be a crab cake on that old bay seasoning. All right, so our salmon today is, it's actually a sockeye, it's a previously frozen. So the nice thing about salmon is that we really can get them, can get salmon in many different forms so you don't have to be concerned. But I've actually made this from frozen salmon that I defrosted and it came out just as nice. So what we're going to do here is just cut this into like one inch cubes and then we're going to get our food processor out but we were lucky enough to have the skin removed. Yes, thank you for pointing that out. So the skin is not actually difficult to remove but you want to know something, it's so much easier to do it. It is pretty easy to remove it but yes, I did take the skin out and you just also want to run your finger along the spine here just to make sure that there are no little bones that are there. Cut these up and give the food processor a little bit of help. And the key here is to, we want to pulse it so we want chunks, we want to be able to see the salmon I think is the key message here, we want to be, we don't want puree and we don't want pâté so we want chunks so we'll get the food processor going so you can count along with me. If I say I'm going to pulse it all right, count with me so we've got one and then open it and look at it. One more time. This is good so again we want the vegetables to be slightly translucent, soft but not mush. Oh yes, actually I'm going to saute them. Okay so you can see the beautiful color that we have in here and then we are going to add the salmon and already you can see the beautiful orange and this sockeye is particularly orange which is really really nice. Okay I love this recipe because there is no starchy filler in it. Basically what you see is what you get in terms of, let me just get this started here. So this is the recipe except I've got the old bay and I really do think it makes a difference. It's a terrific seasoning and it just, it just wakes it up. So as I was making this I thought to myself well this is very Chesapeake Bay you know it's very crab cakey but I also thought this would be really nice if you wanted to make it a little bit more Mediterranean you could actually use those roasted red peppers in there instead of the, no you could use the sun dried tomatoes instead of the roasted red peppers and then it would give it you know a little bit more umami flavor I think. You could also do an Asian version of this by adding some chopped ginger, you could put a little bit of soy in there, a little bit of sesame oil, I think would be really nice. Salmon and those Asian flavors are delicious together. So this makes about six burgers so it takes a pound and a quarter of salmon which makes each salmon cake about you know three and a third, three and a half ounces which is perfect because that also gives a really nice punch of Omega 3 fatty acids and we'll talk a little bit more about that later. So so like with the meatloaf recipe that we made we don't want to pack these burgers because we do want them to be soft and we need to let the pan and the little bit of oil so I am using some canola oil in here and we want the pan to be hot because we want the um we do want the salmon burger to just sizzle a little bit in there but we're not frying it so I'm just putting a little bit of oil in there and I am using our beautiful non-stick pans here. It's hard to find non-stick pans that work well on these induction burners and then we're going to take a third of a cup just kind of simulate a patty so we'll get them right in the pan you see here that's sizzle and the fat from the salmon is going to hold it together sometimes it's easier just to put them down and we can press them and then once you put them in the pan resist the urge to move them because we definitely want to have that sizzle on the bottom and that's what holds them together and makes it possible to flip them. It looks nice. So one of the things that we are encouraged to eat more of is fatty fish. So I happen to love fatty fish, I love salmon, I love sardines, sardines people either love them or hate them they either make a face when I suggest it or they're like yeah I love them too so you know this is just another recipe to improve fatty fish intake. So yes and the dietary guidelines the 2020-2025 dietary guidelines came out in March not March in November and it's really a pretty remarkable document and they do look at not only where we need to be in terms of our diets but where we are as Americans in terms of our diets and in terms of our protein intake so they define protein intake into three categories so we have our meat we have our poultry and we have our eggs and then the second category is seafood and then the third category is our plant-based protein so that's our nuts, seeds and soy-based products and the we do pretty well in terms of the meat, the poultry and the eggs Americans about 70% of Americans eat what is recommended in terms of those types of meats but in terms of fish only 10% of Americans eat the recommended amount which is 8 ounces in a week so you know you're getting one serving up here and that is about 2 grams of omega-3 fatty acids and these are what we call our fish oils so these are the oils that help with heart disease that can reduce blood pressure can reduce LDL cholesterol can reduce triglycerides but also in terms of cancer prevention it's people who eat more fatty fish or more omega-3 fatty acids can also reduce the risk of coherectal breast and in particular some of the liquid tumors such as leukemia and multiple myeloma so you know it's just a win-win situation so we sort of have like a whole meal including you know vegetables and our proteins all in one meal so do you want to yeah I'm gonna start with suckatash I'm not so sure if Robin told you that that's what that's the other dish we're making today oh my goodness yeah it's okay it's called herbs corn and edamame suckatash so suckatash is corn and lima beans so this is a riff on that a modernization of that I happen to love suckatash I love edamame I love corn and and the red pepper gives it such a just a nice color I'm not promoting overly promoting Trader Joe's but they have a very nice product and it's called soy catash and it is what we're making here today it's the soy edamame and corn and a little red pepper and onion and it's ready to go so that's like super handy and you could buy the edamame in many many different forms we just happen to get it in the pods yeah and steam them right in the bag and squeeze them out Pam's gonna demonstrate how they look and I'm gonna flip my burgers I just want to say as you're getting that in there you want to look around the edges here and when you start to see them the color coming out of them you get a sense that they're about ready to flip so I'm just gonna look and I want just a little bit of color on the bottom so I always thought that suckatash was a southern dish you know from the south I was doing a little bit of reading and actually it's a Native American dish and they think that as opposed to you know that let's face it there was no mashed potatoes and apple pie at the first Thanksgiving right but they they they are they feel quite short that there was suckatash or some sort of mix of corn and bean at the first Thanksgiving cranberry beans are very popular in New England and they for and they grow there well and they thought that that probably was what it was so suckatash just refers to any corn with a bean product at all so and then I think it traveled from colonial New England down to the southern states and you know kind of also took on a life of its own there there's many riffs on this this is a modern rip because we're using the edamame so here they're so easy look we got some steamed and you just steam them and then you push out the beans they pop oh see they pop right out they're popping all over we weren't chasing them all over really we were so they're just coming right out they're easy actually you know what this fun thing for kids they would love to do this that would be a great way to get them involved in prepping absolute and then you get them to pick up the ones that fall over that would be helpful too but anyway it's not hard at all kind of fun and they're a really nice color and they do I mean I think you would mistake them for lima beans they look almost exactly like lima beans are a little bit flatter but I think the color I'd like the color of them I think the color is a little bit brighter and edamame is an excellent source of protein and iron non-heamed iron so that's non-meat iron and again that's pretty pretty important for vegetarians so this is a great product and not only that it has calcium vitamin C iron folate and potassium and it has 18 grams of protein in in a cup and that is a lot that's a lot this is a very high protein meal in general this is a very high protein meal but a healthy one one that features you know the omega through fatty acids from the fish and more protein but from a plant-based perspective so you know you can't get any better than this all right I think this is ready I'm going to add in the garlic now and we want to keep a little bit of crunch absolutely when I was growing up in high school and in college my early years in college I worked in a nursing home and they had a three week cycle menu and succotash was on the menu every third Wednesday and nobody would eat succotash like it just looked awful it never looked like the beautiful dish that this is going to become so that's why you know it's kind of nice as foods evolved and you know when how long has it been that you've been able to find edamame in the grocery stores in the frozen section it's kind of like the Zatar you know we're becoming a very very globally you know nutritious nutrition conscious society and it's nice to introduce yeah the different flavors and the different products so it's a it's a nice thing so I just add the corn now I'm adding the edamame it is pretty when escaped get in there oh I think that is prettier than lima beans although I will say that lima beans that you find in you know cans or in the frozen section is nothing like the lima bean that you can grow in your garden they actually are when you pick up fresh lima beans young and not starchy they are sweet it's like candy kind of like peas I am I love peas in my garden it's my favorite part of the garden I think you could buy zucchini and you could buy you know corn in various farm stands but it's really hard to find fresh peas and that is just you know such a nice part of starting a garden and you know seeing what grows what works what doesn't work from year to year what I just added was a little bit of water and a little bit of rice vinegar this is just gonna help it cook for a short amount of time okay so I'm going to take my my uncooked salmon away my cutting board away and I'm going to take my burgers off and then this gets a sauce with it so that's almost ready but this gets a lemon dill sauce with it so kind of like on a burger you would put some ketchup maybe with this this is the ketchup for this I was thinking with with the if we did you know this in more Asian flavors that would be nice to have a wasabi mayo with it you know to add a little bit of that would be good and that actually would be another great thing to add to this is maybe a little bit of red pepper flake so I'm just taking some fresh dill and I'm going to chop that up before I get my cutting board going so this is just another colorful addition we have and then for awesome flavor I'm just going to put a little bit of lemon zest in there so you get the oils you get the just the essential essence of the lemon that just makes this pop completely and I'm going to take some of our fresh basil and those are parsley chop that up and put it in as a finishing should be great this is like our little farm to table here so fun we have a beautiful rooftop garden on the second floor of the cancer center that we have a very generous volunteers plant and maintain for us and we are so fortunate to be able to go up there get the fresh herbs that we need to get the fresh vegetables we usually have plenty of herbs it's a very Mediterranean climate up there so our egg plants just grow beautifully the peppers grow beautifully our cucumbers grow beautifully and it's it's just such a lovely place for our patients to be able to go and kind of get away from you know just the treatment aspects to have some place to go where they can feel healthy where they can feel well where they could feel healed and I just think it's it's lovely I am going to put a little bit of salt in this is that good I'm gonna make sure I have everything in oops I almost forgot the garlic a little bit of garlic I think I want to taste it just looks so good I actually made a lot of succotash this summer last summer the the the corn was so fantastic I used to grow corn myself but I just found that it was too I couldn't handle getting you know 50 or 70 years all at once it was just nice to be able to go to the farm stand and buy the six years that you know I was going to um you know eat for that meal and it was just really nice and I could get different varieties at different times of the summer this is so wonderful with fresh corn I think that frozen corn that we had today I've you know I can't I can't do without the corn but man definitely make this with fresh corn it is so snappy and so um so wonderful it's pretty I think that's I think it's pretty good I like the crunch to it don't you yes I just keep thinking back to the uh the succotash that I had at the nursing home and this is just so much so much more lovely this is a beautiful dish yeah so I just wanted to say one more thing about um salmon so salmon is uh also one of those sustainable um fishes that is it's something that we have to consider you know it's a big world to feed and it's difficult to you know it's we want to make sure that the food that we're eating is also sustainable um and it's environmentally friendly so all of the vegetables that we have have a much much lower carbon footprint so the health of our bodies is so tied to the health of our environment and it's just so amazing how those two things fit together that what's good for our bodies is also healthy for the environment to grow that to reduce our carbon footprint so with the fish there is a really terrific organization called the Monterey Bay Aquarium and they do a seafood watch and they print I guess every six months this one I just downloaded this online they have different consumer guides for different areas of the country so this particular one is is for the northeast that's where we are and it's good for January through June and they really just look at sustainable fishing practices but also in terms of farm raised fish about 80 percent of the salmon that we eat in this country is farm raised and there's nothing wrong with that if you're eating wild though in terms of sustainability you want to I think it's nice to check this list so salmon on here in terms of best choices they have New Zealand salmon and so that's you know something that you might want to look at and then also good alternatives would be Atlantic salmon that comes from the Pacific Northwest from the West Coast basically and that can also be farm raised so I just wanted to point that out that you know it's important that we get our omega 3 fatty acids but we also want to be responsible to make sure that tomorrow you know we can feed our families our grandchildren our great grandchildren so I think I'm going to plate this what do you think absolutely so I think we'll start here we have a lovely whole grain roll and I'm going to take a patty and I just wanted to kind of point out I don't want to over touch it but you see how firm it is and all I did was press it into the pan but it holds together beautifully all on its own there's no filler in there there's no bread crumb there's no rice there's no right the protein of the of the salmon just seizes up itself and just holds it together we're gonna put just a little dollop and what herbs did you use in here I used basil and I used parsley okay so hold on one minute hold on one you're gonna dress yours I'm dressing mine I'm not coming to the party undressed it gets lost a little bit but there you go still yummy so here we go so we want to thank you for joining us thank you thank you so I want to I want to thank you for joining us we had a lot of fun doing this I miss the cooking studio don't you I do too I miss I miss it terribly but I also miss all of our you know our patients and caregivers and staff that stopped by it was it was it's a I hope that it's a warm and welcoming place we love to share food we love to talk about nutrition but we also like to share and it's a it's a nice it was a nice bonus for us to be gifted this so check for future events and we want to make sure that we thank again our sponsor ASI they just made all of this possible for us and it's it's just good to be able to share good food nutritious food and the warmth that we feel for all of you so thank you