Karl’s South of the Border Salmon Patties

Jan wanted something light for dinner. I went on-line for ideas and was surprised what some people—especially the diet cooking magazines—considered “light.” In my mind, anything with pasta is not “light” by definition, but easily a third of the recipes were some form of pasta and sauce.

Karl’s South of the Border Salmon Patties

Finally, I spotted a recipe for salmon cakes. I did not think much of the ones I looked at—in my mind Old Bay Seasoning does not go with salmon. Also, I wanted to make something with fresh salmon, not canned. While salmon is more of a Northwest fish, I decided that I would go a bit South of the Border, but light on the hot chilies and heavier on the salsa fresca ingredients.

Karl’s South of the Border Salmon Patties

Ingredients

Salmon Patties

½ lb. Sockeye salmon filets
2 Tbs. Jalapeño pepper, minced
2 Tbs. yellow onion, minced
2 Tbs. cilantro, minced
1 Tbs. lime juice
¼ tsp. black pepper
pinch Kosher salt
1 egg

½ cup panko

2 Tbs. ghee, separate use
3 tortillas

Mixed greens (baby spinach, baby arugula, and cilantro)
1 ½ cups Karl’s Grilled Plum Guacamole

Directions

1. Remove the skin from the filets and chop them coarsely.

Tip: Dice the filet(s) into small pieces and then pull the fish into a pile and  chop at it a bit more. You want some of the meat in a coarse paste and some of it a bit “chunky.”

2. Put the fish in a medium bowl and add the Jalapeño pepper, onion, cilantro, lime juice, pepper, salt, and egg. Stir to mix well.

3. Stir in the panko and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

4. Form the mixture into patties and place them on a plate—covered lightly with plastic wrap—in the refrigerator for half an hour.

5. Put one tablespoon of ghee in a non-stick pan and fry the patties, over medium high heat, until crispy brown on both sides.

Tip: I tried to grill my salmon patties and I cannot recommend anyone else trying that—getting them off the grill in one piece was a major challenge.

6. Set the salmon patties aside to cool slightly.

7. Lay the tortilla in a stack and cut them into quarter inch ribbons.

8. Add the remaining ghee to the frying pan and toss the tortilla strips in the butter. Fry the strips until crispy.

Tip: I found that putting them in the toaster oven about half way through frying them gave the strips a better and more even toasting.

9. To build the salads, lay down a bed of greens, place one or two patties on top, add a dollop of guacamole and top with some of the crisp tortilla strips. Serve immediately.