Sunday Recipe: Fish Cakes (Torte di Pesce) with Pickled Carrots and Grilled Blue Trumpet Mushrooms
I kicked myself when talking to my sister the other day. I’d roasted halibut and there was some left over the next day. Who wants to eat leftover fish? I put it in the compost bin.
“Oh no!” she exclaimed, “you could have made fish cakes.” Damn, she’s right. It’s been on my mind for days. I had to satisfy the “woolie” (craving) so I made fish cakes today.
My mother made these fish cakes with baccala (dried salt cod) but you have to soak the baccala overnight and it stinks up the apartment. Here’s a variation using fresh cod instead. It’s simple and delicious.
These cod cakes have a crunchy exterior and a creamy interior. The potato mellows the flavor of the cod and a squeeze of fresh lemon brings it all together.
I finished off the plate with meaty marinated grilled blue trumpet mushrooms and pickled carrot sticks. The mushrooms are smokey and their flavor is accentuated by the garlic-infused olive oil. The sweet and acidic pickled carrots are a good counter-balance to the rich fish cakes. A lovely weekend lunch indeed.
The pickled carrots are great to have around as an addition to an antipasti platter or as a side with a panino or even fish or meat. They’ll keep a couple of weeks at least in the refrigerator. Just remove the garlic and hot pepper before refrigerating. The flavor gets better over time. The mushrooms can be kept in the refrigerator for a couple of days too and used in the same ways as the pickled carrots.
You got lucky – here are all 3 recipes.
Fish Cakes
Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh cod (or your favorite fish)
- 3/4 pound Yukon Gold potatoes
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 2 tablespoons Italian parsley, minced
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 egg, beaten well
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 2 tablespoons EVOO
- 1 tablespoon Canola oil (or your favorite frying oil)
Cooking Directions
- Add some EVOO to a saute pan and cook the onions until translucent and browned on the edges. Set aside.
- Boil the potatoes in their jackets until knife tender.
- In another pan add about an inch of water, lay in the fish and cover the pan. Over medium-high heat poach the fish until it begins to flake. Remove to a plate.
- Flake the fish and mash it with a fork to break up the big pieces.
- Peel the potatoes and pass them through a ricer into a large bowl into a large bowl.(You can mash the potatoes but they are better if riced.)
- Add the fish, minced onions, chopped parsley, sea salt, black pepper and egg to the bowl. Mix well.
- Beat the egg in a bowl.
- Put the flour in a bowl or plate.
- Put the breadcrumbs in another bowl or plate.
- Add the oil to a cast iron frying pan (or your favorite saute pan) and heat over high heat until it just begins to ripple. Lower the heat to medium-high.
- Starting nearest to the pan line up the breadcrumbs, flour, beaten egg, and the fish and potato mixture.
- Pick up small handful of the fish/potato mixture and form a ball then flatten to a disk about 2 inches thick and about 3 inches in diameter. Round out the edges.
- Lightly flour the fish cake.
- Dip the fish cake in the egg.
- Lightly bread the fish cake.
- Saute the fish cake on each side until golden brown.
- Drain on paper towel.
- Sprinkle with sea salt.
- Serve immediately with a wedge of lemon.
- Makes about 8 fish cakes.
Pickled Carrots
Ingredients
- 1 pound carrots
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 small dried hot red pepper (optional)
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1/2 cup EVOO
- sea salt to taste
Cooking Directions
- Peel the carrots and cut in half across the width.
- Put the carrots in a pot with boiling water and cook until knife tender.
- When the carrots are cool enough to handle, cut the pieces in half.
- Cut each half into 2 inch match sticks about 1/2 inch wide and put them in a bowl.
- Pour the vinegar and water in a small pot and over high heat reduce to 1/2 cup.
- Add the reduced vinegar/water to the bowl while still hot.
- Add the oregano, dried pepper (optional) and garlic to the bowl and sprinkle with sea salt.
- Mix well. Take the pepper out after 15 minutes if you do not want to have too much heat.
- Serve immediately at room temperature.
Grilled Trumpet Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound Trumpet mushrooms (or your favorite)
- 1/4 cup EVOO
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1 tablespoon Italian parsley, minced
Cooking Directions
- Add the crushed garlic to the EVOO and let stand for at least 15 minutes to infuse the oil with the garlic flavor.
- Heat a grill pan over high heat.
- Trim off the tough bottom of the mushroom and cut in half lengthwise.
- Place the mushrooms in the grill pan and lower the heat to medium-high.
- Press down on the mushrooms to make sure they will pick up grill marks.
- (Sometimes with thick mushrooms I cover the pan for a minute.)
- When grill marks appear turn the mushrooms over to get grill marks on the other side.
- When you have grill marks on both sides take the mushrooms out of the pan and but them in a shallow bowl. They should be soft and tender.
- Add the EVOO, minced parsley and sea salt to taste.
- Mix well and let the mushrooms marinate tossing occasionally until ready to serve.
- Serve at room temperature.
Leftover fish to fish cakes! So, why didn’t I think of that last weekend? This recipe sounds delicious. Now I have to make fish again to have fish cakes! Thanks for sharing.
Vicky