Bacon-Wrapped Mini Salmon Cakes with Asparagus

Bacon-Wrapped Mini Salmon Cakes with Asparagus

Yeah, okay. That's a really long title. What I wanted to call these things was LITTLE BITES OF AWESOME but, alas, that doesn't query well in search engines.

I have to give credit where credit is due. This recipe is entirely my original creation. No one else's. However, it was Dan from At Darwin's Table who got my wheels a'turning to come up with this.

He commented on my Bacon and Crab Stuffed Mushrooms but said he was going to try a different fish instead of crab. I suggested a few other flaky, light white fishes I thought would work - sole, bassa - and then I mentioned salmon. And then I thought: Bacon + Salmon = HELLSYEAH.

I stock up on frozen wild-caught salmon whenever I see it on sale. So I always have some on hand. And we ALWAYS have bacon; there's no primal household that doesn't I'd argue. I checked the fridge for whatever else I could finagle. I saw the bag of leftover raw asparagus from when Mike made these easy peasy appetizers the other day for football:

Prosciutto-wrapped asparagus appetizers

I know asparagus and salmon are good together either cooked or raw (sushi), so why not figure out a way and put them all together? And these were born:

Bacon-Wapped Mini Salmon Cakes with Asparagus


What you need:

• 10 oz salmon
• coconut/olive oil
• pat of butter
• 1 tbsp finely diced onion
• 1 garlic clove, finely diced
• 2/3 c. pine nuts
• 1 tbsp mayo
• 1 tsp Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 1 tsp old bay seasoning
• 1 tbsp fresh chives
• 1 egg white
• bunch fresh asparagus
  thick cut bacon

What you do:

• In a pan, cook the salmon with the coconut oil (you can use olive oil), breaking apart as you cook. 

• When this is finished stick in a bowl in the fridge to cool down.
• Either in a blender or a food processor, blend the pine nuts until they look like this. Thee nuts are very moist and work great as a binder and give the cake a nutty taste.

• In another pan,  melt butter and add garlic and onions and cook until trnaslucent.

• Remove salmon from fridge and add cooked onions/garlic, egg white, pine nuts, mayo cheese, mustard, old bay, and chives (basically everything except the bacon and asparagus).

• Mix well and put back in fridge to chill for at least an hour. This helps make the mixture firmer and easier to work with.

• Lay out the strips of bacon lengthwise and place a few pieces of asparagus perpendicular to the bacon.

• Put a good sized mini cake amount of the salmon mixture, roll up tightly, and hold with a toothpick.

• I put these right on foil but because of the bacon grease, the bottom of the bacon never got crispy so I recommend you put these on a raised tray with foil lined underneath to catch drippage.

• Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes, checking often.

• Serve as a fancy schmancy appetizer at your next holiday party!