Cod and Pearl Barley Appetizer (Fish Pâté)

Name: Cod and Pearl Barley Fish Pâté: Easy Cold Appetizer Spread
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 2 h
Total time: 2 h 30 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Cod 1; Pearl barley 5-6 tbsp (70–80 g); Onion 1; Vegetable oil 1 tbsp; Tomato paste 2 tbsp (33 g); Bay leaf 1-2; Salt, black pepper to taste; Water enough to cover the fish by 1-2 cm; White loaf, garlic for croutons

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2 h 30 mins

An elaborate fish appetizer is quite common alongside meat, mushroom and vegetable ones. Although, many will agree with me, the best fish appetizer is herring with green onions or spiced-cured sprats.

The most common fish appetizer, not counting the beloved salted herring, is fish pâté. Pâté usually means a ground mixture of game or mushrooms that is prepared in a very complicated and fancy way. Or the name is given to small pies or large pies with such a filling. Remember Onegin’s Strasbourg pie made with puff pastry? Here, though, pâtés are made from liver, and very tasty ones. And, as a rule, liver pâté is an excellent ingredient for sandwiches.

An appetizer is the food served with an aperitif before the meal begins. Separate “light” dishes, so to speak. Their job is literally to go with the drink, to accompany the alcohol that is meant to whet the appetite. A separate kind, the appetizer proper, whets the appetite by itself, without alcohol. For example, a sandwich with cheese and hot pepper.

I remember that in the Soviet era there was plenty of cheap canned fish, which was not particularly tasty or refined but did its job as a “quick” snack very well. All you had to do was open the can and spread it on a sandwich. There was a whole “tourist’s breakfast” series, from quite decent canned meat to mixes with boiled grains. I have to admit I liked such canned fish as a child, especially the ones with pearl barley.

A fish appetizer with boiled pearl barley is very simple, although it takes quite a long time to cook. What is special about it is that you can use any cheap fish, even the kind usually not bought because of its many noticeable bones. The fish is stewed for a long time, so the small bones practically disappear. The fish appetizer resembles fish pâté and keeps quite well in the refrigerator for several days, and making sandwiches comes down to simply spreading it on bread, like chicken pâté on bread.

More with white fish

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Braised Hake with Onion and White Wine

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Ingredients

6 servings

For the appetizer
Cod 1
Pearl barley 5-6 tbsp (70–80 g)
Onion 1
Vegetable oil 1 tbsp
Tomato paste 2 tbsp (33 g)
Bay leaf 1-2
Salt, black pepper to taste
Water enough to cover the fish by 1-2 cm
For serving
White loaf, garlic for croutons

Step-by-step recipe

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Preparing the fish and barley

The fish appetizer can be made from sea or river fish, and the fish can be inexpensive and have lots of noticeable bones that nobody likes. Among river fish you can use bream, white bream, large roach (although breaded fish is much tastier), and silver carp. Among sea fish, cod, pollock and others.
Thaw the whole fish beforehand so that it does not leak. This is done for all fish dishes so that fried cod or pollock stay juicy.
Soak the pearl barley in cold water for at least 2-3 hours: it is very affordable and sold in any grocery store, but it cooks slowly. Still, the fish appetizer cooks for quite a long time, and the barley will have time to cook.
Clean the fish: scale the thawed fish, remove the fins and backbone, the large bones, tail and head. It is very convenient to cut the fillets off together with the skin. For fish pâté, you can leave the skin on.

Cooking the fish with the barley

Cook the fish with the barley. Pour the pearl barley into a wide pot, lay the fish fillets on top in large pieces and cover with cold water so that the water level is 1-2 cm above the fish. Put the pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Skim the foam off the surface of the boiling water; there may be a lot of it. After that, add 1-2 bay leaves, reduce the heat to the minimum and cover the pot with a lid.
So that the barley does not stick to the bottom, stir it gently with a spoon at the very beginning of cooking, trying not to damage the pieces of fish too much. After about 15 mins, take out and discard the bay leaf. Cook until the barley is completely soft and falling apart. This can take more than 1 hour. Go by the doneness of the barley.
When the fish and barley are done, carefully take all the fish out of the pot and let it cool a little. Drain the barley in a colander set over a container to collect all the liquid: you will need it later. All the liquid should drain from the barley very well.

Onion with tomato

Fry the onion with the tomato paste. Peel and finely chop the onion, then fry it in vegetable oil in a sauté pan until a pleasant golden color. The onion should be well fried but never overcooked. Fry it uncovered over medium heat, stirring constantly.
Add the tomato paste to the fried onion, season with salt to taste and plenty of black pepper. Reduce the heat to low and simmer the onion with the tomato, covered, for 5-6 mins.

Fish pâté

Put the cooled fish in a blender and grind it to a paste. If the pieces of fish do not grind well, add 1-2 tbsp of the liquid left over from cooking to the blender. Then the grinding will be much more even.
Combine the ground fish with the onion and tomato in the sauté pan, mix and simmer over low heat for another 5 mins, covered.
Add the boiled pearl barley. Since barley can swell a lot during cooking, you may not need to add all of it; add strictly to taste. Barley is a “filler,” and with it the fish appetizer is tastier and bigger in volume.
Mix the barley into the fish pâté. If the pâté is too thick, add a little of the liquid left over from cooking. Without covering the pan, simmer over below-medium heat for about 10 mins. The appetizer should be thick enough to spread on bread.
Let the finished appetizer cool completely and chill it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. It is a cold appetizer, and it keeps well in the refrigerator for several days.

Serving

Make a few croutons from a white loaf, rubbed with a clove of garlic.
Serve the fish appetizer in small portions with the croutons. The fish pâté can also be served as part of more elaborate composed appetizers.

Calories and macros

140 kcal

Serving ≈ 120 g

Protein16 g50% of kcal
Fat3 g21% of kcal
Carbs9 g29% of kcal

100 g118 kcalProtein 13.7 gFat 2.6 gCarbs 7.8 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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