Salmon burgers

For a brief period of time, fresh Copper River salmon is available in the Bay Area. This time is now, so I promptly purchased a whole salmon. We prefer our salmon filleted, which is not hard. After filleting, there is always some meat left over on the bones - scrape it out with a spoon. The leftover meat, and maybe some additional meat from the tail end of the fish provide a nice excuse to make salmon burgers. In fact, those burgers are so good, that I am considering transforming the entire fish into burgers.

Ingredients, quantities are approximate:

1/2 lb fresh salmon chopped finely
1/2 sweet onion, sauteed
2 TBS capers
1 TBS Dijon mustard
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
1/2 cup (or more) panko crumbs
1 garlic clove, chopped finely
a good pinch of salt
oil for pan frying

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients. I prefer salmon to be in small chunks, no larger than 1/4 inch each, some smaller - the salmon will bind everything together.

Heat a pan on a medium heat, add just enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. When the pan is hot, shape salmon into about 3/4 inch thick patties. Pan fry the patties until it is just cooked through. My guess is about 5 minutes per side. Do not rush the cooking, stay on a medium to maybe medium high heat, otherwise the salmon will overcook and the burgers will be dry. A seasoned cast iron pan works very well as it retains lots of heat.

Copper River salmon burgers

We ate the burgers with raw cauliflower and tahini yogurt sauce.