Crispy Salmon Cakes

I have been experimenting with salmon lately.  Salmon is very good for you but I have refused to eat for years.  I just had the thought in my head that salmon did not taste good and I only tasted it once or twice in the last 15 years.  For someone like me, that is always experimenting with food and constantly trying new recipes, this is actually very strange.  I had totally written off salmon as an option.  I also am a proponent for healthy, natural, organic foods and yet, salmon was off limits to my repertoire of healthy foods.  So I recently decided to give salmon a go.  My husband likes salmon and my daughter, who tried it for the first time because my mom brought some over, likes salmon too.

This is my second attempt at making salmon and I will blog about the first attempt with another blog post at a later date.  The moral of all this would be; don’t write off a food just because you tried it once or twice a long time ago.  Especially if that particular food is a super food.

I recently started using Pinterest which is dangerous, time consuming, and absolutely wonderful!  I’ve found loads of new recipes to try and exciting ideas for baking!  I’m in love and this recipe for crab cakes came by way of Pinterest.   I made a few changes to it:

Ingredients:

2 strips of pastured bacon, cooked in the oven at 400 degrees until crispy(about 15 minutes), bacon fat reserved and bacon set aside to cool and then crumble.

1/4 cup chopped organic onion

1 medium organic egg

1/2 cup soy-free mayonaise (because I’m allergic to soy) if you use soy, Always use organic soy products!

2 tsp organic Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp organic cane sugar, Fair trade whenever possible

1/2 lemon, zested

2 1/2 wild sockeye salmon pieces (15 ounces), baked at 400 degrees with olive oil, sea salt, and black pepper, 10-15 minutes, cooled, skin removed, and flaked. Avoid farmed salmon like the plague!

1 medium organic white potato, baked, cooled, peeled, and fluffed with a fork

1/4 cup soy-free bread crumbs (Whole Foods 365 brand)

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Black Pepper

Olive oil or expeller pressed canola oil and reserved bacon fat for cooking

Directions:

I baked the salmon, potato, and bacon at the same time earlier in the day to  give them a chance to cool.  I put the salmon in the refrigerator until I was ready to use it.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the reserved bacon fat in a small saute pan over low heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent. Cool the onions for a bit.

Mix the bacon, onion, egg, mayonnaise, mustard, sugar, and lemon zest in a bowl. Add the salmon and potato, mixing gently after each addition. Separate into 12 parts, onto a plate.  The mixture is wet, which is good but hard to work with.  Place the plate with the salmon, into the freezer for about 15 – 20 minutes.  It will be much easier to work with semi frozen/very cold.

In a shallow dish, combine the bread crumbs, Parmesan, and pepper, to taste. Very carefully, press the salmon into patties and cover with the the bread crumbs.  It is easier to do 4 at a time and keep the uncoated salmon in the fridge or freezer.  Heat 2 tablespoons of oil and/or bacon fat in a large saute pan over medium heat, and cook the salmon cakes in batches until golden, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Add more oil, as necessary. Remove the cooked patties to a plate and continue with the next batch.

I served these patties with an amazing Kale and Mushroom dish which is a Rachel Ray recipe.

I followed this recipe almost exactly. I used white organic mushrooms because that is what I had. I also used Sherry Cooking Wine instead of Marsala wine. My husband and my oldest daughter loved the kale! It was really good and I would definitely make it again!
I also paired this dish with mashed sweet potatoes. I was hoping to have leftover potatoes to make sweet potato cakes with, but we ate them all!

For the potatoes:
I baked 2 large sweet potatoes at 400 degrees until they were soft, about 40 minutes. Keep an eye on them because they tend to drip and one potato was done before the other. I let them cool off a bit and then peeled them and mashed them up with a little organic heavy cream, 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, and organic brown sugar to taste. So easy, yet so tasty!