Salmon Croquettes with Dill Sauce

My mom used to make salmon patties (she never called them croquettes) and they were actually a lot like these, so I was a little surprised to find them in a book called Soul Food Love.

But I hadn't made them in quite a long time, so I figured I'd give them a try. I always liked them, but they're just not something I think of very often.

For more about the book, I did a review over on Munching on Books.

The one difference between mom's recipe and this one - besides the name - is that mom served hers with ketchup. Which sounds weird, if you think about it. But it totally worked.

On the other hand, the dill sauce works just fine, too. I thought it was a touch heavy on the mustard, so I suggest that you start with less mustard and add more until it's the way you like it.

The recipe as written was intended to serve 8, so I cut it in half, which was pretty easy to do. I ended up with quite a bit of the leftover dill sauce once the patties were gone. I think about half of the sauce recipe would have been enough for all of the salmon - but I'll let you decide on that. I guess some folks might want a lot more sauce.

Salmon Croquettes with Dill Sauce
Adapted from Soul Food Love by Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams

1 1/2 cups plain Greek yogurt or sour cream*
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
6 springs fresh dill, chopped
2 14.75-ounce cans salmon packed in water**
4 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 large onion, chopped
4 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (or to taste; I used less)
1 tablespoon pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
Bread crumbs, optional***

To make the dill sauce, whisk the yogurt, mustard, and dill in a small bowl. Set aside.

Drain the salmon an remove and discard the skin and bones. (If you're using salmon from pouches, just drain the small amount of liquid, since there are no bones or skin bits.)

Mix the salmon, celery, onion, eggs, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Form the mixture into patties the size you like. I liked smaller patties - and they held together better. The recipe called for 8 patties from the full recipe, and I had about 10 of them from half of the recipe. Do what you like!

Add the olive oil to a large pan and heat on medium-high. When the oil is hot add the patties. Cook until well-browned on one side, then flip and brown well on the second side. Figure about 5 minutes per side.

Serve the patties with the dill sauce.

If you're not into creamy sauces with fish, a squeeze of lemon over the patties would work well, or serve them with lemon wedges.

Or, they'd also be good with some hot sauce - either straight-up, or perhaps a sriracha mayonnaise or even a salsa.

Mom served hers with ketchup. So ... once they're on the plate, it's up to you.

* The recipe called for plain yogurt or fat-free sour cream. I'm not a big fan of fat-free sour cream,
but if you like it, go ahead and use it.

I used part Greek yogurt and part regular sour cream.

** I prefer the salmon in the pouches, There's very little liquid, and the skin and bones have been removed already. The pouches I saw were 5 ounces, so 3 pouches was enough for 1/2 of this recipe, which was what I made.

*** Although the recipe said that bread crumbs were optional, I didn't see any way this was going to hold together without them. The recipe suggests 3/4 cup for the full recipe, but use what you need to keep it from being too wet, and so that it sticks together.

I received this book from the publisher for the purpose of a review - which I've already done. I was not obligated to also post a recipe.

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