Imaginary Lobster Rolls

 

To my taste, this fishy po'boy is as good as or better than a take out lobster roll, and a  fast and tasty way to get your weekly salmon requirement.

We get these wild caught Alaskan sockeye salmon portions, skin on, from Walmart, either fresh (previously frozen? IDK), or frozen, but they are rather bland tasting for some reason, especially since I rarely cook with salt. 

So to increase our gustatory pleasure, I make a salmon salad and throw it on a sandwich. A traditional lobster roll or fish or shrimp po'boy is on a hot dog bun. Here we used a soft French baguette, $1, made in store at Walmart. 

1. Mix a couple scoops of mayonnaise in a bowl with a squirt of tomato ketchup. Add an optional teaspoon of horseradish. Add chopped pickles. We used my sour refrigerator pickles, homemade from fresh cucumbers.
2. Pan fry the salmon portions, in olive oil, skin down, a few minutes, flip, and continue cooking until the interior of the salmon is flaky rather than sushi. Pepper it generously with black pepper. Dill or tarragon are traditional options as well. Roughly chop it in pieces with the spatula flipper. Squirt over it the juice of a lemon.  
3. Toss in the saucy bowl, layer on your choice of sandwich roll.

Omit the pickles if you like, but they are a welcome tart crunchiness. Chopped fresh ripe tomatoes are good too, capers, even grated carrots, onions, or apples.

Job done!

The salmon isn't buttery as genuine lobster meat is, but it does taste rich, and the pink and white of the salmon, mayo and blush of tomato ketchup, with the rough points of the salmon flesh, tricks my mind into feeling just as spoiled.