Salmon #6: Salmon Croquettes

Salmon #6 Salmon Croquettes

We had some leftovers after making the Salmon with Herbs and Garlic. I knew I needed to be mindful of how I managed the leftovers so that Kyle didn’t feel like he was eating too much fish. A few weeks ago, I made fish for dinner on a Monday, then gave it to Kyle for lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday, we then had fish for dinner again on Thursday and for lunch on Friday. Although this was good because no food was wasted, there were some grumbles about eating too much fish. So this time I wanted to make the leftovers into a new dish. Luckily, Mark Bittman has a recipe in How to Cook Everything that specifically calls for leftover salmon!

Salmon Croquettes
Ingredients
1 to 2 cups leftover cooked salmon
1 to 2 cups leftover Mashed Potatoes
½ to 1 cup chopped onion or scallion
1 teaspoon minched ginger or garlic (optional)
1 egg
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
About 1 cup bread crumbs, preferably fresh
¼ to ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Lemon wedges for serving
Recipe
1. Combine the salmon, mashed potatoes, onion, parsley, ginger, egg, mustard, and some salt and pepper in a bowl. Add just enough bread crumbs to stiffen the mixture without making it too dry.
2. Shape into thumb-sized cylinders or silver-dollar-sized cakes; dredge in additional bread crumbs, then dry on a rack, refrigerated for 15 to 30 minutes. Heat a large deep skillet over medium heat for 2 or 3 minutes. Add a film of the olive oil, add the croquettes, taking care not to crowd them in the pan, and cook until they are nicely browned on all sides, about 10 minutes total. If you need to cook the croquettes in batches, add more olive oil. Serve with lemon wedges.

This recipe was quite easy to make. It would have been even easier if I had leftover mashed potatoes on hand, but it really wasn’t much work to microwave some potatoes and then mash them. We didn’t measure the mashed potatoes, so we may have used a bit too much, but this can be easily fixed in the future. I didn’t use the seasonings the recipe called for because the salmon was already seasoned with garlic and herbs. We were also a bit short on time the night we made these so they didn’t go into the fridge to set like they were supposed to. Nevertheless, they held together without any problems.
These were really good! They got nice and crispy on the outside. They were quite flavorful as well. We also enjoyed them because it didn’t feel like we were eating plain leftovers. It felt like a totally new meal. Although I don’t think these would work with every type of leftover salmon, they are definitely a make again and will probably be made quite frequently.