Young and Fresh

The best of the local farmers' markets began operating yesterday.  In the past it has been difficult to get to there because work always interfered.  Since that's no longer a problem I made the drive yesterday.  Because of the continued wet weather in this area things are behind quite a bit.  Still there was some fresh asparagus soup, some nearly still warm eggs from an Amish farmer and some wonderful lettuce pictured below.
The lettuce went into a wonderful salad with a few fresh herbs and some red onion.  That was paired with a cup of the asparagus soup and some salmon cakes using the left over salmon from the post below.

The salmon was chopped and I added a small amount of smoked salmon to the mix, along with some lemon thyme and a chopped shallot.  For a binding I used a homemade roasted garlic and saffron aioli; roasted garlic, lemon juice, a bit of salt, an egg yolk, a wee bit of Dijon mustard, a pinch of saffron, some lemon zest and some olive oil.  We buzzed the concoction in the blender, gradually adding more oil as needed until we had a wonderful tasting mayonnaise.  Once the mixture was formed into cakes they chilled out for a short time in the refrigerator and then were rolled in panko crumbs and sauteed until warm and crisp.

With the salmon, soup and lettuce all being remarkably fresh there was a need for a fresh wine so we opened one of the Kinkead Ridge White Revelations that we picked up a couple of weeks ago at the winery.  Sharp, tart and fresh and almost a perfect counterpoint to the richness of the salmon cakes.  There were more herbal flavors that popped out along with the citrus. The austere minerality in this wine just made wonderful music with  the food.  This was a wine much better with food than it was by itself at a tasting.

$13.95 and 14.7% alcohol