Oh, so that's how she does it: Crazy plain salmon loaf.

You know those "crazy cakes" , usually chocolate, that you mix up with a fork right in the cake pan?  I had no idea, but Hannah has just walked me through her kid-salmon-loaf recipe.  It is a crazy loaf much like the crazy cakes.

It is very very plain.  Add other stuff if you want (like peas or green onions).  The kids all like this, though.  Here you go.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Oil a 9x13 glass dish generously with olive oil.  Dump two cans of salmon with bones, liquid and all, into the dish.  Use a fork to mash up all the bones really well.  Crack in four eggs and beat them with the fork, mixing well with the salmon.

Now take a container of finely ground yellow cornmeal (the cardboard canister from Quaker works fine) and shake some over the top.  Mix it in with a fork.  Repeat until the consistency resembles meatloaf.    (At this point, you could add vegetables, onions, and other things to make it not so plain.)

Press the mixture flat down into the pan and drizzle generously with olive oil on the top.  Bake till crispy.  Cut up and serve with ketchup.

There you go -- the only thing you've dirtied is one glass dish and one fork...

Comments

[Tabitha]

What a great idea! I will be trying this one, maybe tonight!

[Bethany]

So easy!

[Adrienne]

But the brand of canned salmon at my grocery store has THE VERTEBRAE in it! Do I really just mush it in?

(I have a hard time with canned salmon. Tuna=no bones=okay. Salmon=bones=sort of gross.)

[bearing]

I used to be grossed out by salmon bones too, but I got over it.

Here's the thing. I'm not sure why it is, but the bones in canned salmon, including the vertebrae, are surprisingly soft. You can crush them easily with a fork. If you put the salmon in a big mixing bowl and stir and stir and stir, eventually all the bones will be crushed and broken so small that nobody will see them. In a flat pyrex dish as in this recipe, you kind of have to hunt for the vertebrae and mash them individually, but eventually, if you mash long enough, you will not be able to discern any bones.

The bones make the salmon better for you because you get to use all the minerals for your own bones :-)

BTW: I happen to prefer the more expensive red salmon, but pink salmon is fine too.

[Tabitha]

FYI, I think the bones are soft from the canning process. They are SO healthy for you! Im imagine you could use tuna, but it would take a lot of cans to make a loaf.

[bearing]

Plus, tuna's leaner than salmon. Fewer good fish oils.

[LeeAnn Balbirona]

I just can't eat canned fish; I can barely stand handling raw meat in general. Urgh. I admire those of you who are more sensible than me.

[Margaret in Minnesota]

I am about to make this for our snowy Saturday lunch! I'll let you know how it goes (down).

[Margaret in Minnesota]

As promised, I am back to say:

They DEVOURED it, "they" being every last child, including the neighbor.

Thank you, Hannah!

[bearing]

That's great news, Margaret. There you go, a new lunch sensation.

[Dorian Speed]

I may actually try this, even though I don't think my children have ever eaten canned fish, and I've never had canned salmon, and I read this and think, "they will never eat this."

Because they never eat anything, anyway!

(mild exaggeration)

About how long does it take to become crispy?