Something Old: Salmon Patties

This is a week for breaded things. Today we have something fried once, and for Thursday, there will be something fried, not once, but twice! And there'll be a delicious orange sauce on top.

Today's recipe is for Salmon Patties, a quick and easy recipe that's a great way to work some fish into the repertoire. I'm still a little nervous about cooking fish, since we never really cooked a fish filet or any kind of raw fish when I was growing up. I think that might have to be my next food adventure: figure out how to cook a salmon steak. We'll see how that goes.

But no worries about this recipe. You can't undercook it. You just brown it as much as you like your breaded food browned.

Happy frying!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Salmon Patties January 14, 2010

Chase and I decided to make these as our last dinner before he went back to Columbus after Christmas. Salmon patties were another staple from my childhood. The recipe from my mom is actually quite like the recipe of Chase’s mom, which was neat. Here’s what we made.

Ingredients

16 oz canned boneless salmon

¼ - ½ cup chopped onion

2 Tbsp butter or margarine

⅔ cup bread crumbs, divided

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

½ tsp dry mustard

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Directions

1. Drain salmon, reserving ⅓ cup of liquid. Place salmon in a mixing bowl and flake.

2. In a medium or large skillet over medium-high heat, cook onions in butter until soft and barely brown.

3. Once onions are cooked, add them to the salmon. Also add reserved salmon liquid, beaten eggs, Worcestershire, mustard (we left this out because Chase is not a mustard fan), and ⅓ cup bread crumbs. Mix well.

4. Shape the salmon mixture into palm-sized patties. Add more bread crumbs to the mixture if it is too wet and not holding its shape well.

5. Coat the shaped patties with the remaining ⅓ cup bread crumbs.

6. Heat the vegetable oil to medium in the skillet. Cook the patties for 3-4 minutes per side, until browned.

7. Serve with Miracle Whip, lemon, tartar sauce, ketchup, mustard or whatever you choose. Enjoy.

Salmon mix ready and spare bread crumbs waiting.

Forming the patties by hand.

Into the pan.

Salmon patties and Miracle Whip. Yum! Happy cooking!

Something Extra: Red Velvet Cake

Happy dessert day!

When I was in college, my family used to drive down to Norman on my birthday every year to celebrate with me. This was the first year for as long as I remember that I didn't have a cake made by my mom on my birthday.

Instead, Chase helped me bake one of my two favorite cakes (the other being Chocolate Cherry Bundt cake). We didn't grease and flour the pans quite well enough, so our cake was a little uneven, but it was still just as delicious. My mouth is watering and my hands are itching to bake just thinking about it. I wish there were cake in the house right now. I might have to remedy this tomorrow ...

Happy cake cooking!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Red Velvet Cake

Ingredients

½ cup Crisco

1

½ cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp cocoa powder

2 cups flour

½ tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 Tbsp vinegar

1 tsp baking soda

Red food coloring

Frosting

1 cup milk

¼ cup flour

pinch salt

1 cup sugar

1 stick margarine

½ cup Crisco

1 tsp vanilla extract

wax paper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. For the cake: In a large mixing bowl, cream Crisco and sugar.

3. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in cocoa, salt and flour. Beat in buttermilk and food coloring (to your color preference).

4. In a separate bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda. Let foam, then gently stir into batter.

5. Pour the batter into two greased and floured 9" round pans or one 13x9 pan.

6. Bake for 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

7. Remove from oven and let cool before frosting.

8. For the frosting: While the cake is cooking, place a medium saucepan over medium heat.

9. In the pan, mix together milk, flour and salt. Stir until the mixture reaches the consistency of thin mashed potatoes (4-7 minutes).

10. Remove from heat. Press wax paper down on top of mixture while it cools.

11. Once the mixture cools, combine sugar, margarine and Crisco in a separate bowl. Beat until fluffy.

12. Add the sugar mixture to the cooled milk mixture along with the vanilla. Beat to frosting consistency.

13. Frost and decorate the cooled cake. Enjoy.

Batter in the greased and floured pans.

Milk and flour mixture at thin potato consistency. When you've reached the

right consistency, it should take a couple of seconds for the mixture to fill

back in when you run a spatula across the middle of the pan.

Wax paper covering the mixture to prevent a film.

Frosted and decorated for celebration! Or just eating.

Happy cooking!