Fresh Salmon Cakes

On my grocery trip for our previous salmon dish, I panicked at the fish counter about having too little and ended up buying twice as much salmon as we needed. We decided to save the extra to try our hand at making fresh salmon cakes. Salmon cakes are one of my favorite dishes, but we usually use the canned stuff, so this was a good experiment to see what kind of difference fresh salmon would make. This comes courtesy of The New Best Recipe.

1 1/4 lbs salmon fillets

1 slice sandwich bread, crusts removed and chopped fine

2 tbsp mayonnaise

1/4 c finely grated onion

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp plus 1/2 c vegetable oil

1 1/2 tsp water

3/4 c plain dry bread crumbs (preferably panko)

Chop salmon flesh into pieces and mix with chopped bread, mayonnaise, onion, parsley, salt, and lemon juice. Form into patties and place on parchment-lined baking sheet. Place in freezer until surface moisture evaporates, about 15 min. Meanwhile, prepare breading stations with flour, egg/1.5 tsp oil/1.5 tsp water, and bread crumbs. Bread the patties. Heat 1/2 cup vegetable oil in skillet; add salmon patties and cook until medium golden brown, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook about 2 minutes longer.

The patty mixture. See if you can spot the mistake!

Chilling in the freezer. Sloppiness related to aforementioned mistake.

Served with a fresh salad, thanks to our CSA

Although the cookbook "wouldn't for a minute consider" canned salmon, we decided that making the cakes with fresh salmon was not worth the extra effort and cost for the small difference in taste. If we have fresh salmon, we feel it's best put to use in one of our favorite broiled salmon recipes.