Lazilicious Cheesy Salmon-Potato Cakes

I recently found myself craving my mother's salmon-potato cakes. Growing up, she made them a lot during Lent using canned salmon, leftover mashed potatoes, egg, bread crumbs, and such. I was always unnerved by the sight of Mom picking the salmon skin and bones out of the drained meat and was quite sure, for a very long time, that salmon was the grossest food ever. Tuna was good as it came in a nice little can I was allowed to drain and prepare all on my own. There was nothing fishy or weird about it. (To my chagrin, I must admit it wasn't until high school that I stopped drowning my mom's salmon cakes in ketchup and realized how good they were on their own and changed my mind about salmon).

So I wanted salmon cakes. Alas, I had no leftover mashed potatoes or even whole potatoes to turn into mash. What I did have was a box of Streit's Potato Pancake Mix. "Hmm," I thought, "surely I can salmonize this." And I did.

Start by putting a large serving platter in your oven and setting the oven to its lowest setting (mine actually has a "warm" setting). Then prepare potato pancake mix according to box instructions and let sit until very thick (about 10 minutes). Stir in one can drained skinless, boneless salmon (Wild Planet Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon) and one cup shredded cheddar (Cabot 75% Light). Stir well.

Heat canola oil in a large saute pan and drop dollops of batter into the hot oil. Pan-fry cakes until golden brown on both sides. Remove from pan and drain on paper towels on a platter in the warm oven. Repeat until all the batter is used. Serve with sour cream or ketchup and a large salad.