Salmon Cakes

I look at a number of places when I need some inspiration: blogs, books, magazines. A frequent source for new ideas is Cooking Light magazine. It's especially fun because in addition to receiving it myself, I give the magazine as a gift to my daughters, so it's fun to hear which recipes they've tried ... and liked. The recipe for crab cakes in this months issue reminded me of the salmon patties I had when I was a kid. I must admit that I didn't like them much, but I've always liked crab cakes. Hmmm, how about using some of the yummy ideas from crab cakes for salmon? That's what I did, and found a new way with canned salmon that's going to be one of those recipes that we come back to again and again.

Ingredients:

1 cup panko, divided in half
2 Tbs minced flat leaf parsley
2 Tbs finely chopped green onions
2 Tbs diced red bell pepper
2 Tbs diced celery
1 fresh lemon, cut in half
   2 tsp fresh lemon juice, and 4 lemon wedges
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp Mrs Dash spice mix
1/2 tsp paprika
1 dash Tabasco or hot sauce
1 large egg, beaten
10 to 14 oz canned salmon
1 tsp olive oil

Directions: Mix 1/2 cup of the panko with the parsley, onion, pepper, celery, lemon juice, mustard, Worcestershire, spice mix, paprika, hot sauce, and egg. Drain the salmon, then lightly fold it into the panko, vegetable, and spice mixture. Pour the remaining 1/2 cup panko onto a shallow dish. Form the salmon mixture into 8 round balls, then roll them in the panko. Flatten the balls to make small patties.
Pour the olive oil into a nonstick skillet, then heat over medium heat. Add the salmon cakes and cook for about 2 minutes, turning each cake and cooking another 2 minutes. Serve with the lemon wedges.

Serves 4

Stealthy Cooking Tip: Lots of crab cakes are served with a cream sauce. Try the lemon wedges! They're great. Also, I think it would be fun to serve these as smaller cakes, think salmon tots. I made them larger than I suggested above, and while the serving amount was right, the visual amount looked small. Smaller salmon tots would take a larger visual space on the plate and would be more mentally filling. A smaller size would also work well as an appetiser.