Pinot, Bretzels, and Cathedrals

Good morning friends!

I’m going to cut to the chase this morning, and try to keep this one short and simple. I made fishcakes this week- a first for me. Well, a first for a very very long time. We don’t eat much fish here at home. If I can get my hands on some fresh fish, I grill it or bake it for Anton while the kids eat fish finger sandwiches, while I am at work. Going through the steps to DO something with fish is more effort than it’s worth, and often unnecessary, so forgive my laziness when it comes to fish recipes. (Although, cabillaud en papillotte with leeks and mushrooms is a little bit more than just a baked piece of fish, so perhaps I should include both a fish cake recipe and en papillote here?)

As it is, I don’t have a go-to recipe for fish-cakes. The times I have made it, I’ve ‘winged it’. This week I wanted to use fresh salmon with mashed potatoes so I spent time creating my own recipe as I couldn’t find anything online to suit my expectation.

I ended up making 8 pattys’ of 125g each, which is enough for 4 people. I served it with fresh steamed broccolli and I made a variation of tartare sauce, which I will include as well. I had planned to crumb the pattys but they’re too soft for that, so I baked them as is. However, you could crumb them if you’re patient, but I don’t think it’s entirely neccessary.

(If you want to crumb them, make them a little smaller, and freeze them to make them easier to manage. To crumb them, dip them first in flour, then into beaten eggs and lastly into breadcrumbs. This is quite nice to serve as finger snacks when the time comes for us to start socialising again. To do this, form them into smaller, bite-size portions.)

Since I am not a fan of fish in general, I used salmon here which I will eat in small quantities. You can opt for a different fish to save costs if you want to.

Fish cakes
450g fresh salmon
200ml cream
350g cooked potatoes, mashed (do in advance, with salt but without cream or butter)
2 spring onions, sliced
2 teaspoon chopped capers
1 lemon, juiced
1 big handful chopped parsley
30ml soya sauce
Salt
Pepper
 
1.       Make sure your mash potato is prepared in advance that it is cold when you use it.
2.       Using a food processor, purée the raw salmon and cream to make a mousse. 
3.      Remove from the processor into a mixing bowl.  Add the remainder of the ingredients and mix thoroughly.  The potato will make this a little more difficult, be patient, and try using a whisk if you need to.
4.      Make sure your salt and pepper is enough.  Cook a small spoon to taste if you need to check.  The mashed potatoes normally require additional salt, so be aware of that.
5.      To form them, use a little oil on your hands to form patty’s on a baking tray.
6.      Bake at 200˚C for 12 minutes.
7.      Serve immediately with my version of  tartare sauce.

(Options to mix it up a little: Use white fish, add some cooked corn and bacon pieces to have a ‘chowder’ appeal. To have a Thai influence with salmon, remove the capers, parsley and lemon, replace with 1 table spoon red curry paste, lime juice and fresh coriander. )

Gaenors’ Tartare Sauce
1 cup cottage cheese (fromage blanc if you’re in France)
1 onion, finely chopped (or 2 small shallots if you can find them)
Gherkins/ cornichons/pickles, chopped the same as onions, in the same quantities
1 teaspoon capers, finely chopped
1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
1 lemon, juiced
50ml milk
Salt and pepper
Mix everything together.
 

And now that I’ve kept you for so long, I’ll share poisson en papillote with some other quick meal suggestions later this week.

I hope that you are all safe and healthy. My love and best wishes, as always,

Xx