Thursday, October 14, 2010

a funny thing happened on my way to make dinner


This plate was my mother's - I don't know where she got it; from a thrift store maybe? On sale, definitely. Unless it was a gift. 
My mother used to sometimes make salmon patties, and serve them with a sauce made of thinned-out cream of celery soup.   
                                                                                                                                               
Today I had some canned salmon, and was planning to make a loaf with a nice recipe of Marion Cunningham's, except the amount of butter in it has been bothering me.  So, I thought I'd look for something else. 

I was poking around Anna's blog as is my habit, and came upon this - an old recipe for salmon patties! And it recommends a celery sauce to go with it! You can use either mashed potato or bread crumbs. I had two cans of salmon, and had bought some sweet potatoes at the store without a plan for them, so decided to boil them early and use them instead.



So here is my recipe -   Sweet Potato and Salmon Patties with Rosemary

Mix together 4 lightly beaten eggs, 2 large cans salmon without bones, skin or liquid,  2 mashed, cooled sweet potatoes, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. dried rosemary leaves, a shake of pepper, a bit of savory and a small shake of nutmeg. It seemed too wet, so I refrained from adding the fish juices, and I also put in some plain bread crumbs - maybe 1/3 cup? Not sure.

Fry them up in oil till browned on both sides.  I used extra virgin olive oil, which was an extravagance! - they absorbed quite a bit. We had them with soup - I didn't make a sauce.
                                                                               
  
Really good, and filling.

(I have since reduced the eggs to 2 - that's plenty!)
                                                                                 

11 comments:

  1. Salmon patties are a staple around here. I've never tried Anna's recipe since my own has food memories of childhood mixed within it. The sweet potato addition has me curious though, I may just have to give them a try!

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  2. Yes, I thought it might be improved with a less starchy formula. A little healthier.

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  3. I've never heard of salmon patties - I must have missed them on Anna's blog (I guess because she posted the recipe before I started reading her blog), but it looks and sounds very, very good! Potatoes! Rosemary! That looks almost like a touch of Czech cuisine. :-)

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  4. If you make them, Hana, let me know if you like them!

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  5. Oh, I guess I will. :-) Looking at the recipe again, it looks very much like what we call "karbanátky" in Czech - meatballs, but usually with addition of some vegetables, breadcrumbs, actually whatever you can find at hand. Just switch the meat for fish...
    I think if I can find salmon easily, or something reasonable to replace it with, I'm going to make them very soon! It really looks and sounds so very, very tasty.

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  6. Hana - the salmon was from a can, not raw! I want to make sure you know that. Is that easy to get in your country? You could use canned tuna, also, I suppose. If you used raw, of course you'd be cooking it longer. This way, you only need to make sure the inside isn't mushy anymore - that the egg is cooked.

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  7. I tried it with tuna and "surimi sticks", something that's made, I think, from cod. Because I could not find salmon in the shop, but it was a rather small shop, so I might get lucky in a bigger one. I was just impatient to try. :-)
    It's my own version of it... I baked them instead of frying them (I was afraid of so much oil, and did not have enough anyway), and added spices to my preference - powdered caraway seeds (the ultimate Czech spice, when compared to the Western countries!), a bit of thyme, a bit of powdered ginger - I do not have nutmeg at hand and do not like pepper. Plus I added onion cubes. Because I like onion.
    I also did not add the juice at all, just like you, it was juicy enough and I had to grate a whole bun into it! Plus four smallish potatoes.

    They're great. Very edible... I think it's something that goes into my staples! Not so staple as others, because it requires some special ingredients, but staple enough.
    I wish I had tartar sauce. When I tasted the first bit to see what they turned out like, I thought immediatelly that yes, it needs tartar sauce. I ate them with ketchup, which did not feel quite right...

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  8. Tartar sauce! You and my brother - I stay away from the stuff. :) But otherwise, good for you, Hana! Tell me more - how long did they have to bake? Did they get nice and brown?

    We also have something in this country called "fritters" - which are also patties, but softer; usually using leftover vegetables mashed up, with flour and egg mixed in. Those need to be "fried", because they're more like a pancake. But they would use less oil.

    I'm glad you found a new "keeper" recipe.

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  9. I don't normally eat much tartar sauce either! But this somehow called for it. Although they were very good on their own, cold, as well!

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  10. Oh, and I have no idea how long they baked. Until they were brown, simply. :-)

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  11. Thank you - the oven sounds like a good idea.

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