We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: if you want your toddler or young child to eat fish, you need to cook it right. Punishing the fish = punishing your child(ren), and yet, nearly all of the recipes out there for fish nuggets, sticks, fingers, cakes, et al. involve a double cooking seafood–either by cooking through the first first before forming it into the aforementioned, or by using canned seafood–and the results are predictably, well, sawdust-esque. You didn’t like that when you were a child; your child(ren) especially won’t now.
Here, then, is a simple solution: a salmon equivalent to chicken fingers, but cooked to an appropriate level of doneness so that your child will just barely be able to tell the difference–and not care at all. What it lacks in novelty it more than makes up for in actually tasting like something your child wants to eat: crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, with just a few sparks coming by way of the sauces and condiments in its filling. It’s just right.
These just require a sauce or two–say, ketchup or your child’s preferred creamy condiment (i.e., ranch, tartar).
Feel free to use a whitefish like cod instead of salmon; no changes to the ingredients or proportions are required. If feeling frisky, you can mince a vegetable–say, red pepper or zucchini–and include in the fish mixture. For the salmon cakes the adults will eating, add a bit of Old Bay or cayenne to the mix.
Brad (the Dad) is the founder and Chief Recipe Officer of New Dad's Kitchen. His own cooking/feeding journey started humbly during his son's infancy, preparing and managing his son's bottle intake in order to support his wife; it has since blossomed into a full-on passion to feed his child and family delicious and healthy meals that can satisfy both a toddler and his very tired parents.
