Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy



One of my reasons for avoiding canned salmon in my sandwiches is that by the time lunch comes around, the "juice" has soaked through my bread. Ew.  

When I was younger I used to make for myself salmon patties all the time. I don't know why, but I had fallen out of the habit. I decided to reclaim that favored dish. 

The fun thing about salmon patties that you can really just add what you want. There are no rules, no official recipe needed. 

I put up in an olive-oiled frying pan some finely diced onions, and let that go a bit. Then I added finely chopped mushrooms (I've used both fresh and canned) and celery. I let the whole bunch saute until it became as small and shriveled as possible. This step isn't necessary; a ground raw onion will do the same. But I wanted to make things interesting. 
While that was cooking, I chucked two cans of salmon into a bowl along with a can of "blah" tuna that needed to be used up. I went seasonings crazy: a squirt of mustard (the regular yellow stuff is healthier than the Dijon), garlic powder (a fresh clove, smashed and diced, could be used as well), black pepper, parsley, dill, and a spoonful of mayo. 

For binding materials: bread or breadcrumbs. Usually I would use a piece of soaked stale bread, but since I didn't have any leftover challah I used Bob's Red Mill Cornmeal and Quaker Oat Bran.

I had completely miscalculated this for my first batch which fell apart, since a healthy amount of bread-ish substance is needed to absorb excess liquids. I have found 1/4 cup of cornmeal and 1/4 cup of oat bran did quite well (or 1/2 cup of either alone).
If more bind-age is needed, chuck in an egg. But I have found the bread or crumbs or meal to be enough.

I mixed into the fish mixture the onions, mushrooms, and celery from the pan. Warmed the pan up again, and not much oil is needed; just enough to coat the bottom. Fry those babies up for a few minutes on each side.
As I mentioned, my first batch didn't have enough breading agent so they oozed apart. I chucked it into my sandwich the next day; it didn't need to be pretty to be fabulously tasty. The last ones came out beautifully shaped.

If one would prefer more official recipes, just google "salmon patties"; a whole bunch of tasty options pop up. These are not only a great lunch, but perfect for dinners as well with some potatoes or pasta (whole-wheat, of course) on the side.  

6 comments:

tesyaa said...

I made salmon patties Tuesday morning before work and my husband came into the kitchen and asked "why are you making those??? You already made soup for dinner" etc. No problem - more for ME! I brought the leftovers to work today for lunch, yum yum.

My recipe has about 5 ingredients and puts together in 5 minutes - I'm not comparing :)

Princess Lea said...

A man to complain that you are making something else? Hm. My father has been having these for lunch this whole week. So far he doesn't seem to mind.

Any ingredients in yours I haven't mentioned?

Joshua Josephs said...

My preferred binding agent is to use saltine crackers. You need less of them to get it to hold together because it is such a dry agent to start. Ive also found that if you dice the onion and mix it directly in with the fish before cooking that is quite a good way to go also.

Princess Lea said...

JJ: Meaning you add diced raw onions to the fish mixture before patty-fying them?

Tovah11 said...

PL:

Thank you! I've been wanting to make salmon patties for so long.

By the way, I just noticed you put my "Tiffany to Target" on your blogroll.

So honored.

Thank you so much.

My sister is as big of a fan of yours as I am. Sometimes, you just make me laugh out loud at some of the things you say.

Princess Lea said...

Thank you. It has always been my mission in life (in all seriousness) to make people laugh.