It’s three days after Thanksgiving and your family is tired
of leftovers. And you STILL have mashed
potatoes. Here’s a recipe that will fool
them into thinking they are getting an entirely new dish, while you get to
empty the refrigerator just a little bit more.
This is so tasty that it is worth making extra potatoes the next time,
so you will have leftovers.
Ingredients
Leftover mashed potatoes – weighing three times as much as
your salmon – Today, I had 540g or 19 oz.
Salmon filet -
weighing a third as much as your potatoes – so I bought a salmon filet of 180g
or 6.3 oz.
Handful of green onion tops (with a little extra for garnish)
50g or 1 3/4 oz sharp cheddar cheese
1 egg
Bread crumbs
Sea salt
Black pepper
Cayenne pepper
Olive oil
Method
Salt and pepper the salmon filet and gently pan-fry it with
a little olive oil, in a non-stick skillet.
Put the lid on and keep the fire low.
You are going to get some color but you don’t
want a hard crust.
Turn it after about five minutes and cook on the other side
for another five minutes, still covered.
Turn the fire off and let it rest, covered, in the pan while you get
your other ingredients ready.
Chop the onion tops very, very finely. Grate the cheddar cheese. Lightly beat your egg.
Remove the salmon from the pan and, using two forks, flake
the meat off of the skin. (Some people
throw the skin away. I pop it back into
the non-stick skillet and fry till it is crispy, crispy, crispy. Then I eat it. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Delicious.)
Put the mashed potato into a large mixing bowl and fluff it
around with a fork. Add the onion,
cheese and salmon. Add the egg and mix
well.
You can add pinches of salt and black pepper at this point
but remember that your mashed potatoes were already seasoned, as was your
salmon. But do give the mixture a good
sprinkle of cayenne pepper and mix again.
Sprinkle a plate with breadcrumbs. Carefully shape a big spoonful of the mixture
into a patty. Put it in the
breadcrumbs.
Using a spatula, push
breadcrumbs up the sides of the patty and then flip it gently over to coat the
other side.
Meanwhile, wipe out your non-stick skillet and add a little
more olive oil. Put it on a medium
heat.
Still using the spatula, slip the patty into the skillet.
Form the rest of your patties the same way and gently slip
them into the skillet. These are quite
soft and may mash up a little when you try to turn them so cook on a medium to
low heat until a good crust forms on the bottom. Possibly 7-10 minutes.
If your pan is too small to maneuver in easily, you can
remove one patty before trying to turn the others, as I did.
Flip gently and cook until you have a crust on the other
side. You can serve these with a side
vegetable or a salad. Either would be
delicious. Enjoy!
(Despite the photos, this actually made six good-sized
patties. I ate the first two before I
took the pictures.)
Enjoy!
Enjoy!