If You Like Crab Cakes, Try This Fish Instead | America’s Test Kitchen

What’s a nice fresh fillet doing mixed up in a fried cake? Three good reasons: a crispy exterior, a moist interior, and a super-simple cooking technique.

Smoked Salmon Cake Recipe: https://cooks.io/44AWKTC

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– It can be a real challenge to find recipes that are made for two that are suitable for an
elegant evening at home. Well, to the rescue is Erin, and she’s here with a new and elegant take on fishcakes for two, right? – Yes, it is, yep. One for me, one for you. – [Bridget] Perfect.
– All right. So we are making fishcakes,
as you just mentioned, and more often than not, they’re made with white fish like a cod or a haddock or some other white fish. But today we’re actually gonna use salmon. – Nice. – It’s all about the salmon today. And we’re gonna use two types of salmon. Typically, you’ll find salmon cakes made with like canned salmon
or precooked salmon. But we’re gonna use one eight-ounce piece of fresh salmon filet, boneless, skinless. So I’m just gonna cut
this into one-inch pieces. – [Bridget] Okay. – [Erin] Okay, so the next
step is to basically take this and we’re gonna process it. And the food processor is
gonna make this faster for us. All right, so I’m gonna pulse this twice. I want the pieces to be small and uniform and a piece is no larger
than a quarter of an inch. – [Bridget] Got it. – [Erin] Okay, so this
is our chopped up salmon. It happened really fast. You don’t want it to go too small. We want pieces of fish to
be seen in our fishcakes. We don’t want it to be a puree. But it’s okay if there’s some larger
pieces in here like that. So we’re gonna leave that there and now we’re gonna go onto
our second type of salmon. – Yeah, you said two.
– Two. So we’re gonna use two
ounces of smoked salmon. This is cold smoked salmon. It’s so good. So you can buy this in the grocery store. It comes sliced very thinly, and so all you have to do
is just run a knife over it to finely chop it. So let’s move on to our binder. We want these to be predominantly fish, and so we’re using a
small amount of binder. So starting off with one
tablespoon of mayonnaise, two tablespoons of Panko, and this is one small
shallot that I minced, and one tablespoon of dill. And the shallot and the dill are gonna give our cakes some freshness ’cause they’re fresh ingredients, and it’s gonna really come through. And then next we’re gonna add
two teaspoons of lemon juice. And this is acid that’s gonna help cut through the richness of the salmon. And now we’re gonna add
a little bit of mustard. This is a half a teaspoon
of Dijon mustard. And that, along with a pinch of cayenne and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper, are gonna give our fishcakes a little bit of a punch of heat. – Nice.
– Just a little bit, subtle. It’s gonna help to cut
through that richness. And next up, we’re gonna add one and a
half teaspoons of capers. So this is gonna add a
nice hit of liveliness to our fishcakes as well. – [Bridget] Good briny flavor.
– So salty, briny. And an eighth of a
teaspoon and of table salt. So now we’re just gonna mix
our ingredients together so it’s nice and cohesive. – But you’re right, there
isn’t a lot of binder in there. It’s just a little bit
of the Panko and then, I mean, just a tad of that mayonnaise. – [Erin] Just a little bit. We want these to be packed with fish. So now going back to our fresh salmon, just gonna add this to the bowl. And going to our cold
smoked salmon, adding that. – [Bridget] Very nice.
– [Erin] Very nice. See, it’s coming together very quickly. You can picture yourself
coming home from work and making a nice quick meal. All right, so now I’m just combining this. And as you can see, it’s like all salmon with just hints of other flavors, right? Beautiful. Okay, so now we’re gonna portion
these into four fishcakes. I’m gonna use a third of a cup measure. It just helps to pre portion
it and also pre shape it. – [Bridget] Nice.
– [Erin] There you go. Almost there. So now I’m just gonna shape these, pack them so that they are
nice cohesive little bundles. So they should be about one-inch thick. And typically fishcakes are breaded with the standard breading procedure, so flour, egg, breadcrumbs. Because salmon is so sticky, we can skip over the flour
and the egg, which is great. We’re just gonna go right
into half a cup of the Panko. – [Bridget] Even easier.
– [Erin] Even easier, yep. And I’m just coating ’em. – [Bridget] Oh.
– [Erin] Easy peasy, right? – [Bridget] This is really easy. – All right, Bridget, every fishcake needs a good tartar sauce. – Yes.
– So let’s make one. This is again, super easy. It’s pantry ingredients. I have a third of a cup of mayonnaise. – [Bridget] Okay. – [Erin] To this I’m
gonna add a tablespoon of sweet pickle relish. I’m gonna add one and a
half teaspoons of capers. One teaspoon of white wine vinegar. It’s gonna add a little acid,
cut through that mayonnaise. And a quarter teaspoon of Worcestershire. It’s gonna add a little depth of flavor. So I’m just gonna whisk these together. And I’m gonna taste it, see if
it needs any salt or pepper. (Bridget laughs) Hmm. – Little pepper? – Good, just a little bit
and a tiny bit of salt. Okay, we’re ready to cook. – [Bridget] Fry time?
– [Erin] Fry time. So I have a 10-inch skillet and a third of a cup of oil
heating over medium-high heat, and we’re looking for shimmering,
and I see some shimmers. A good test is to throw
a piece of breadcrumb in, and if it starts to fry,
you know you’re ready. – [Bridget] Great.
– [Erin] Okay, so we’re ready. Now I’m just going to add
each salmon cake to the pan. Being gentle about it. They’re not super packed. We don’t want them to break apart, but they definitely are
gluing themselves together, which is good. All right, now we just let them
fry for two to three minutes until it’s nice and golden brown, and then we’re gonna flip ’em.
– [Bridget] Nice. – [Erin] So they’ve been browning for about two to three
minutes on this first side, and I can tell it’s getting
nice and golden brown. So I’m just gonna check and gorgeous. – [Bridget] Lovely.
– [Erin] Gonna flip that over. I like to use my hands a lot, but it’s also safer if
you use another spatula. – [Bridget] Yes. – [Erin] So that you don’t burn yourself. So you just scoop and then
you flip and then you slide. – [Bridget] Nice. – [Erin] Scoop, scoop, flip, slide. – Look at that great crust. – Isn’t that beautiful? Yeah. And now we’re just gonna cook
them on their second side for another two to three minutes. Okay, Bridget, I know that
they’re cooked through. Do you trust me? – I trust you implicitly Erin.
– Excellent. All right, nice and golden
brown on the second side. – [Bridget] Oh, lovely.
– [Erin] Beautiful. We’re just gonna put them
on a paper towel-lined plate just to absorb any of that excess oil. And you’re ready to eat. There you are. – Oh, these look fantastic. – [Erin] There you are. – [Bridget] Mmm, mmm, mmm. – [Erin] Dinner for two. Our quick tartar sauce. – [Bridget] Mmm. – [Erin] And you can’t have a salmon cake without a wedge of lemon. – [Bridget] That’s exactly right. – [Erin] And the tartar
sauce is pretty much all pantry ingredients. – [Bridget] All right, very tender. – [Erin] Very tender. – [Bridget] Oh, look at that beautiful… You can see the salmon inside. Well, some fishcakes you cut into, and it’s like, where’s the fish? – [Erin] So good. Packed with flavor. – Packed with fresh salmon flavor. Little note of that smoky
cured salmon in the background.