what’s for dinner?

This is what:

Salmon fishcakes, glazed carrots, and a green salad, plus a negroni.

Fishcakes are stupid easy, and I make mine with canned salmon, which makes them stupid easier.  Steam or boil a good-sized peeled potato (cut into chunks), then mash it with some pepper.  Add a big can of salmon, drained, (skin and/or bones removed if they gross you out), and mash it in with the potatoes.  Taste for salt; canned salmon is pretty sodium-heavy so you probably won’t need to add any.  Get your hands in there and form them into little cakes, as big or small as you want.  Dredge them in flour, then fry them up in a bit of oil over med-high heat.  If you’re feeling extra-greedy, serve them with tartar sauce.  Or you can be virtuous and go with a nice big wedge of lemon.

While that was all happening, I made the carrots.  Slice a couple of carrots on the diagonal, and put them in a little pot with a good splash of water, a smaller splash of maple syrup, some salt and pepper, and a tiny dribble of vinegar.   Cook over high heat with the lid on for a few minutes, then take the lid off and let the liquid boil off until the carrots are glazed and tender.  If the water boils off before the carrots are cooked, add another tiny splash of water, cover them again for a minute, then remove the lid and boil off the extra liquid again.

The salad is just some red leaf lettuce tossed with blood orange olive oil, some rice vinegar, and some coarse salt and pepper.  No recipe required.  You’re welcome.

And the crowning touch, my drink of choice lately: the Negroni.  In an old-fashioned glass, pour a scant ounce (or a generous ounce if you’re feeling a bit lushier than I was tonight) each of sweet red vermouth, campari, and gin over a nice pile of ice.  Finish with a twist of orange.  Fancy bartenders twist the twist over the glass and set the orange oils alight to caramelize them.  I have no idea how they do this with only two hands, and I didn’t feel like setting my kitchen on fire tonight, so I went with the straight-up twist.  Lame, I know.  Maybe next time.