Recipe: Popeye's Salmon Cakes

Popeye's Salmon Cakes

Popeye's Salmon Cakes Offer your family a knock-out supper when you pair Popeye's favorite vegetable with sensational salmon. To better visualize how far we've come from old-fashioned canned salmon patties, check the photo of these colorful cakes.

For a pretty appetizer, serve mini-salmon cakes atop tiny pitas or pita wedges with arugula and Catalan Romesco Sauce, thinned with a bit of sour cream.

Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 12 minutes
Yield: 4 main course servings

3/4 cup thawed, frozen,
   chopped spinach squeezed-dry
1-1/4 cups cooked salmon
   (10 ounce fillet with skin, cooked)
3/4 cup shredded, cooked potato
   (5 ounce potato, cooked)
2 tablespoons well-beaten egg,
   about 1/2 a large egg
2 tablespoons plain, nonfat yogurt
2 teaspoons finely chopped chives or green onion
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg or pinch ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 to 1-1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Spray vegetable oil (optional)

1. In a medium bowl, place the spinach and pull apart with two forks. (Don't be tempted to super-charge the cakes and use the whole package of spinach. You'll add too much moisture and the cakes will fall apart.) Add salmon and finely flake. Add potato and toss with spinach and salmon to blend well.

2. In a small bowl, combine egg, yogurt, chives, tarragon, mustard, nutmeg, salt, and pepper until mixed.

3. Pour egg mixture over salmon and toss until well blended. Moisten hands with water or spray with oil; form salmon mixture into four 3-inch cakes. If desired, make eight 2-inch cakes instead. Cook cakes or refrigerate up to 24-hours. (We've even frozen Popeye's Cakes, and they're still tasty.)

4. Add 1 tablespoon oil to a large, heavy skillet and heat on medium-high heat for about 4 minutes, until a drop of water sizzles when added to the oil. Add salmon cakes to skillet, reduce heat to medium and cook 3 minutes until the bottom is browned; loosen cakes part way through cooking. If necessary, add extra oil. Turn cakes and cook 3 more minutes. Flip again and cook 2 minutes more, until cakes are hot all the way through. For 2-inch cakes, cook 2 to 3 minutes per side. Serve 1 large or 2 small cakes per person.

Vary It!
Offer guests a smoky taste instead by substituting hot-smoked salmon or trout for cooked salmon (you must omit the salt).

If you don't have leftover, cooked potato to use as a binder, microwave a potato on high for 5 minutes. Place the potato in the freezer for 1-1/2 hours to chill thoroughly. Peel potato and shred on the largest hole of a grater.

Buy the Book!

Seafood Cooking For Dummies®
By Leslie Beal Bloom and Marcie Ver Ploeg
IDG Books Worldwide
Paperback, $19.99
ISBN: 0-7645-5177-9
Recipe reprinted by permission.