Severn River Perchin' and the FISH CAKES that followed!

[Striper_MIKE]

Launched out of Jonas Green around 6:30am yesterday with my brother to do some perch fishing. This has been really productive in recent months and yesterday was not different. Ended up with about 15 keepers in the 10-12" range and called it a day after a few short hours.

Now for the COOL PART ... I picked up this book "Off the Hook" by Lenny Rudow for less than $1 on Amazon. It's packed with recipes for pretty much any type of fish you could catch in the Chesapeake and surrounding areas. I tried the recipe for fish cakes last night and was not disappointed



Easy to prepare and delicious!

[ILV2F5H]

Mike, I was there for like an hour last night from 8-9. Still managed a few keepers. Them sandwiches look tasty!

[Striper_MIKE]

Mike, I was there for like an hour last night from 8-9. Still managed a few keepers. Them sandwiches look tasty!

They were awesome! Especially considering that "I can't cook" ... having a good recipe makes all the difference!

[Grady-Black]

Those cakes do look good!
WTG!
GB

[ILV2F5H]

Some of the bigger Perch I cleaned had a whole crab leg in it.

[Striper_MIKE]

Those cakes do look good!
WTG!
GB

They sure were good and HUGE, too! I ended up with way more meat than was really needed so these cakes were wider than the buns. I credit the book's section on how to fillet in terms of the quantity of meat I ended up with. Looking back at how I used to do things, I used to waste so much meat!

[Shady]

Nice work! When I make perch cakes I broil the filets in the toaster oven with a little old bay on top for 13 minutes, then flake the meat apart with a fork and substitute it in for crab meat in my crab cake recipe. Is that the jist of the recipe that you used?

[Striper_MIKE]

Nice work! When I make perch cakes I broil the filets in the toaster oven with a little old bay on top for 13 minutes, then flake the meat apart with a fork and substitute it in for crab meat in my crab cake recipe. Is that the jist of the recipe that you used?

Almost the same ... this recipe called for steaming the fish first, then mixing meat in w/onion, green pepper, egg, old bay and salt ... form into cakes and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes ... then take out and squeeze lemon juice all over ... then put back in and broil for another few minutes until top and edges brown a little ...

[surfdog]

nice! any books you can find by lenny are worth buying. he has 3-4 books on fishing the bay and techniques used to catching the fish in the region

[ericlindy42]

They sure were good and HUGE, too! I ended up with way more meat than was really needed so these cakes were wider than the buns. I credit the book's section on how to fillet in terms of the quantity of meat I ended up with. Looking back at how I used to do things, I used to waste so much meat!

That looks DELICIOUS! Planning to make some this weekend for the lady. Had a couple of questions. What kind of method did you use to clean the perch, did you cook just clean perch fillets or did you cook them whole, i.e. gutted and head cut off, then flake out the meat with a fork for the cake mixture?

Most recipes say about a pound of fish meat will work, you said you got 15, I'm guessing about 8 - 9 would work?

Thanks,
E

[Striper_MIKE]

That looks DELICIOUS! Planning to make some this weekend for the lady. Had a couple of questions. What kind of method did you use to clean the perch, did you cook just clean perch fillets or did you cook them whole, i.e. gutted and head cut off, then flake out the meat with a fork for the cake mixture?

Most recipes say about a pound of fish meat will work, you said you got 15, I'm guessing about 8 - 9 would work?
E

I steamed the clean perch fillets although doing what you suggest and flaking out the meat would work just fine as well. I will say there is something about the consistency of the meat after steaming that ended up working really well, though.

As for the quantity of meat, the recipe gives directions for 3 large panfish. I caught a mess of perch and decided to use all of them for the recipe (which is why each fish cake was bigger than normal). Wow, getting kinda hungry just talking about it ...