Tender Cod and Potato Fish Cakes with Blue Cheese Sauce

Preparing the ingredients

1. Thaw the cod naturally. It’s best to move it from the freezer to the refrigerator in the evening, and in the morning it will be ready to work with.

   

   Cod scales easily. Just scrape it with a knife and rinse.

   

2. Cut the fillets off the bones and skin. Fish patties should be boneless, so use a sharp knife to make a cut along the backbone, pressing the knife against the bones. It’s best to end up with two whole fillets on the skin. Lay the fillet skin side down on a cutting board and cut all the flesh off the skin with a knife. With a little practice you can do it in one movement. Anyway, neat-looking fillets aren’t essential, since the fillet will be ground.

3. Bake or boil the potato in its skin. This is very convenient in the microwave: pierce the potato with a knife and cook on full power for 6-8 mins. By the way, this is also an excellent way to bake the vegetables for vinaigrette salad.

4. Chop the parsley and garlic. Pick the leaves off the parsley and discard the tough stems. Peel the garlic. Put everything in a blender and chop it into small pieces. Don’t turn it into a paste. You can use different herbs, and plenty of them. I think even green onion would work; the patties will be sharper.

   

5. Grind the cod fillet in a meat grinder. Modern grinders do a pretty good job of separating the small bones in the fish from the mince, collecting them in front of the plate. That suits us fine.

   

Making the mixture

1. Mix the ground cod with the garlic and herbs. Add salt and spices to taste, usually ground black pepper, nutmeg, and dried aromatic herbs. Grate the peeled baked potato on a fine grater. Add the egg. Mix thoroughly. If the mixture turns out a bit runny, add 1 tbsp of breadcrumbs (8 g), otherwise the patties will fall apart during frying.

   

   The consistency of the mixture should be soft but firm, not stick to your hands, and not fall apart as you shape the patties. Don’t overwork it either, or you’ll get stones instead of cod patties.

   

Shaping the patties

1. I want to say a separate word about breadcrumbs. I hate the packaged breadcrumbs sold in small boxes in every store with all my heart, and have since childhood. It’s personal. For some reason their smell gives me a lasting aversion. At home we always keep a stale baguette in the refrigerator. Modern “no frost” refrigerators dry a loaf to a ringing stone within a week. You just grate it, and you have excellent breading. I don’t understand why buy something of unknown origin when you can make it yourself with no effort and be sure of what’s in it.

2. Wetting your hands with water, shape small patties. Shape and size are up to you, though. I like them small and round, like a ball. That’s why I call them little patties.

   

3. Roll the patties in fresh breadcrumbs and place them on a dry plate. By the way, if you let the patties sit for a few minutes, you can bread them a second time.

Frying

1. Melt the butter in a skillet. If for some reason you can’t use butter, vegetable oil, such as olive oil, works fine. It’s nice to fry 2-3 crushed garlic cloves in the oil first and then discard them. The oil takes on a little aroma, and the patties taste better.

2. Fry the patties over high heat until golden brown on both sides, and all around if you can. Once they are browned, you can turn them with a spatula, like potatoes while frying. Also, I wouldn’t cook them in a lot of fat. They would look prettier, no doubt, but fat is high in calories.

   

3. Cover the fried patties with a lid and cook over low heat for 15 mins. That’s enough.

   

Serving

1. Serve the cod patties hot only, right away, as soon as they are ready. Mashed potatoes or boiled rice make an excellent side dish.

   

   Sauce is optional and to taste. The patties are delicious with a sauce based on cream and blue cheese. Then you don’t need any side dish, and it’s a complete meal.