Fish Patties Recipe: Boneless, Juicy, Step by Step
Strictly speaking, fish cutlets aren't really cutlets at all. A cutlet is a thin piece of meat on the bone, or a type of fish fillet. Fish patties, on the other hand, are made from ground fish.
Still, for most of us a cutlet means a flat patty of ground meat, or of other ingredients: vegetables, fish and even mushrooms.
The word itself comes from the French côtelette, from côte, meaning “rib”. Closer relatives of our ground-meat patty are croquettesand meatballs.
Only a few people still think of a cutlet as a piece of meat on the bone. Meanwhile, patties made from just about anything have become a firm and permanent part of our everyday cooking.
Fish has always been one of the ingredients for our patties, especially pike. Pike patties are delicious when cooked well. You can fry them, bake them or steam them. The recipe is simple and easy to repeat, and pike dishes are very much part of our culinary tradition.
Ingredients
2 servings
- Fish fillet 400 g
- Garlic 1 clove
- Dried herbs (dill, parsley) 0.5 tsp
- Egg 1
- Spices: salt, sweet paprika, pepper, nutmeg to taste
- Vegetable oil, milk to taste
- Breadcrumbs 0.5 cup
Step-by-step recipe
- Pike isn't the only fish that works for ground fish. Zander and perch make excellent patties too, and white sea fish such as grenadier, cod or sea bass are also a great choice.
- Skin the fish fillet and remove all the large bones. Grind the fillet in a meat grinder. I once noticed that an electric grinder with a fine plate “filters out” all the small bones when you run fish fillet through it. They don't get ground up; instead they gather in a bundle in front of the plate, and you can simply pick them out and throw them away. A very useful trick. Very!
- Once you've removed the small bones, I recommend running the ground fish through the grinder once more. That makes it smoother.
- Crack the egg into the ground fish.
- Peel the garlic and grate it straight into the ground fish.
- Add salt, ground nutmeg (to taste), 0.5 tsp sweet paprika and the dried herbs, season with pepper and knead into a smooth mixture.
- Add 2 tbsp milk or cream and mix. Keep kneading, adding breadcrumbs a little at a time (a grated stale white loaf works well). Knead the mixture thoroughly, until it stops sticking to your hands. If you overdo it and the mixture is too stiff, add 1 tbsp milk.
- Shape the mixture into patties. Size doesn't really matter here. Half a kilo of ground fish usually makes 8–9 patties. I recommend making them flat rather than round, so they cook through better.
- Coat the patties in breadcrumbs. Some cooks dip the fish patties in beaten egg before breading them; that's up to you.
- Fry the patties in vegetable oil over high heat on both sides until golden brown, then lower the heat and cook, covered, until done. Frying time is 15 minutes or more. It's important that the fish mixture is cooked through inside.
- Fish dishes are usually served with mashed potatoes or fresh vegetables. Or both at once.
- Serve the fish patties hot.
| Yield: | 2 servings |
| Calories: | 130 |
| Prep time: | 30 mins |
| Cook time: | 20 mins |
| Total time: | 50 mins |
| Category: | Main Dishes |
| Cuisine: | European |
| Rating: |
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5
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