Wild-caught canned salmon makes a tasty burger

Salmon is one of my favorite fish. I love fish as a source of protein, both for health and taste considerations. There are other fishes that I find tasty, such as tilapia and even swai, but their sources of origin often present a problem, especially for my wife, Kaisari, who is the family’s main cook. Even for salmon, we both prefer wild-caught, especially if it is Alaskan, which can be more expensive.

For everyday non-fancy use, we have found a way around that. It is canned wild-caught Alaskan salmon we regularly buy from our favorite big-box store, Costco. It comes in a six-pack cling-wrapped tower, each can containing 6 ounces. Costwise, it comes out cheaper per pound than buying fresh or even frozen.

The biggest plus, however, is convenience. Just open as many cans as you need; it is cooked and ready for use in so many recipes. The minus point, of course, is that you don’t have a solid fillet you can grill or cook in the pan or outside on the grill.

Kaisari has made many tasty dishes with the canned, though, such as the burgers below, or spicy fish curries, especially one where even solid fillets are broken up into a somewhat dry melange with a lot of onion and cilantro or other fresh herbs such as dill. They are great served over freshly boiled basmati rice.

If I had any lurking doubt about canned salmon’s worth, I got fresh endorsement for its value in a recent “Dr. Oz Show” on ABC. One of the investigative reporters on his team analyzed its value and recommended canned salmon for its nutritional value and its ready availability. The fish is vacuum-packed in the freshest possible state and remains safe and tasteful for a long time.

Tuna, of course, is even more readily available and has wide use in the kitchen, but we prefer salmon’s milder and more pleasing taste. And tuna has at times been implicated in some reports with mercury contamination. That may not be any problem, though, unless you eat it unusually often.

Here is the recipe for the recent salmon burgers Kaisari made for our lunch. Leftover burgers stood us in good stead for another meal that week. Use only quality wildcaught salmon from reliable sources.