Recipes: Salmon loaf and mejadra

There's just something fishy about fighting cholesterol.

By JUDY MONTAGU
I make tuna casserole, and so was interested to compare the taste of an attractive-looking salmon loaf served at a friend's house last Shabbat. Since she is a fine cook I wasn't surprised to find it, and its accompaniments, very good. SALMON BAKE 3 cans pink salmon (213-gr. each), with the juice 1 cup hot milk 1 Tbsp. butter 1 cup bread crumbs chopped parsley to taste 1⁄2 tsp. mustard powder salt and pepper to taste oil sweet paprika 2 eggs Mash together everything except the eggs and paprika, then stir in the eggs. Heat a little oil in a loaf tin. Pour in the salmon mixture, sprinkle with the paprika and bake at 180 for up to an hour. TASTE THOSE BEANS! whole green beans, sliced diagonally balsamic vinegar to taste chopped fresh dill to taste a little salt olive oil a few garlic cloves, chopped whole-wheat bread crumbs Boil the beans in a little water, or steam them. Drain. Mix in the vinegar, dill and salt. Saute the garlic in a little olive oil and add the bread crumbs. Stir well; turn off the heat. Mix in the beans. THE LENTIL-rice mixture so popular in the Middle East can be a bit bland, but my friend's was moist and delicious, and great with the salmon and green beans. MAJADARA 1 cup rice 1 cup brown lentils, washed and drained 2 medium onions, chopped 1 tsp. cumin 1⁄2 tsp. turmeric 1 tsp. salt Saute the onion for about a minute. Add the lentils and stir-fry together with the cumin, turmeric and salt. Add 2 cups of boiling water, cover, turn the heat to low and cook for an hour, or until soft. Add a little more water if necessary. Cook the rice. Let it sit a while, then combine with the lentils. (Optional: Serve topped with more onion that has been sliced and saut ed until deep brown and caramelized; and with yogurt.) THEY SEEM to be lowering the bar for acceptable cholesterol levels all the time so that even if you've tested okay in the past, you could find your doctor raising his eyebrows over your latest results. It happened to me, and the fact that the cause was most likely genetic and not diet-based wasn't much comfort since the directive was the same: Get that cholesterol down! My relationship with my doctor is good; I try not to bother him, and he doesn't bother me. And when I do visit it's always civilized. Nevertheless, I suspect he considers me a difficult customer because, as he has complained good-naturedly more than once, "I know you won't take pills!" This is the truth: I am extremely reluctant to swallow medication on a daily basis, so even though I know millions of people take statins for their cholesterol and are fine with it, for me that route is sign-posted Very Last Resort. This is why I am downing two daily capsules of Omega-3 fish oil, which, my doctor says, has worked wonders for some. I am also eating as much actual oily fish such as herring and salmon as I can. Oatmeal helps soak up that bad LDL cholesterol, so I'm having a bowl of that every day - no hardship for someone who hails from Scotland, home of porridge. A colleague alerted me to cinnamon and garlic as natural cholesterol inhibitors - not necessarily in the same dish - and so I've upped my intake of them, too. And I'm exercising more. Will this beat the pills? Time will tell. 'AND THE Lord filled the earth with vegetables of all kinds so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives... And Satan created the burger, and said to Man: 'You want fries with that?' And Man said, 'Super-size them.' And Man gained pounds, and his cholesterol went through the roof... "And the Lord created yogurt, that Woman might keep her figure that Man found so fair. And Satan froze the yogurt, and brought forth sugar, chocolate and candy sprinkles to put on it; and Woman gained pounds. "And the Lord brought forth running shoes, and Man resolved to lose those extra pounds. "And Satan brought forth cable TV, with remote control, so Man would not have to work to change channels... And Satan saw that and said, 'It is good.' "And Man went into cardiac arrest. And the Lord sighed, and created quadruple bypass surgery. And Satan created private health insurance." (From the Internet) judymo@jpost.com