salmon fish cakes

salmon fish cakes, a photo by the james kitchen on Flickr.

Make leftovers for Fish cakes. As I said before, we always use any leftover white fish or salmon for fish cakes and you should plan an extra portion for some to be made for supper or freezing during the next 5 days. They can be easily frozen for an instant and hardly-any-work lunch supper, too and are absolutely delicious. This salmon-dill version with mustard and a little cheddar (you can leave the cheese out without any problems) which we made a few weeks ago is a great one.

Salmon-dill fish cakes
makes 4 servings

200g (7 oz) salmon, steamed or baked (best to make one extra portion of saumon en papillote for this)
about 150g (a little more than 5 oz) potatoes, mashed
chopped fresh dill (to taste)
1 tablespoon coarse Dijon mustard
1 heaped teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon English mustard powder (Coleman’s)
1 pinch paprika
salt & white pepper
3 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon plain flour
a handful of coarsely grated cheddar
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk (half of this for the fish cakes, the other half for dredging)
flour
breadcrumbs
oil

Carefully break the salmon into pieces, do not mash them up totally. Press the potatoes through a ricer (or use mashed potatoes) and add along with the dill, mustards, mustard powder, paprika, salt & pepper, breadcrumbs, flour, cheddar and half of the beaten egg & milk. Mix all together until combined, form little cakes about the size of small apricots and flatten them a little bit. Place on a sheet and let them rest for about 10-30 minutes in the fridge while you clear up and prepare the dredging station. Turn each fish cake in the flour, then the egg and lastly in the breadcrumbs. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the cakes for about 5 minutes over medium heat and about 2 on the other side. Serve with a crispy salad and a yoghurt-mustard dressing and more dill. Pickled gherkins or cucumbers, too.

To freeze: make the cakes up to the point where they are covered in flour and place the naked but floured cakes in a single layer on a sheet, cover with cling film (plastic/ceran wrap) and freeze individually so that they do not cling together, afterwards they can be placed in a freezer bag.

Cook from frozen: Take as many out as you need for dinner, preheat the oven to 120°C (250°F), dust the frozen cakes with a little more flour, dredge in an egg mixed with the milk (obviously you will need a new egg here) and breadcrumbs and fry these in a skillet with a little oil over medium heat for about 2 minutes on each side to a light brown colour. Place on a baking sheet covered in parchment or kitchen roll (kitchen towel) to absorb some of the surplus oil and warm for 20-30 minutes, turning the cakes over once. Leaving them in a little longer if you need to is not a problem.

salad, bean & meat tacos

salad, bean & meat tacos, a photo by the james kitchen on Flickr.

Until Friday I never had a typical beef taco I liked and I never understood the fuss & drama about them. The ones we had before were not very special: devoid of flavour, soggy, messy and unexciting. So, there was never really a big draw to make those, we were quite contempt with our other chicken, fish, pork taco recipes, thank you very much, and there is a far more exhilarating vegetarian black bean version in my queue than the all American stand-by.

Well, we were so wrong and happy to be in the know, finally, after I winged a recipe I had found while browsing some of my favourite sites. Ree Drummond’s (The Pioneer Woman) Salad taco recipe sounded intriguing and inspiring (she adds beans and tomato puree for more flavour and I think a less dry mix) and apparently everyone commenting has a very strong opinion about beef tacos, so we gave it a shot and tried our own:

I used a mixture of beef and pork for a juicer and less dry ground meat base, added black beans for colour and flavour as well as to upholster the meat with some more vegetables/pulses. Since I have no taco seasoning and will never buy any, I seasoned as I thought would be sort of tex-mex and added cumin, oregano & chiles along with some Mexican chipotle salsas that were crowding the fridge.

The absolute revelation was to bake the pre-fried taco shells in a hot oven for about 5-10 minutes for absolute crispness (note: taco shells from a Mexican online store, not the supermarket – it makes all the difference) and get this, another great Pioneer Woman trick: fill the taco shells first with shredded salad and you will never have a soggy taco again. Maybe an old hat for all you who knew that a looong time but we’ll share the knowledge with those living in the dark ages as we have until the revelation. It is still a little messy eating those but that is what I mean by Friday fun food. Great with a movie or the new Sherlock series, when, oh when will that finally be out?

Salad, bean & meat tacos
For about 12 tacos, inspired by this recipe from The Pioneer Woman

500g (a little more than 1lb) minced meat, equal parts of beef & pork
olive oil (1-2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
1 tablespoon of ground dried chiles (I have a mixture of ground ancho, mulato, chipotle & pasilla chiles)
¼ teaspoon of garlic powder or a little clove, finely chopped
½ teaspoon of onion powder
½ teaspoon of piment d’espelette
salt & black pepper
2 tablespoons of tomato purée
½ tin (210g) of salsa picante de chiles chipotles (I used La Morena) or any other chipotle chile sauce
½ tin (210g) of salsa mexicana roja (La Morena)
several dashes of Cholula hot sauce or Tabasco chipotle (optional)
½ cup or more water
1 tin of black beans

The trimmings:
12 corn taco shells
2 handfuls of shredded salad (we had endive escarole salad = german: Endiviensalat)
½ avocado
5 small plum tomatoes
½ small red onion, chopped
a little finely minced garlic (¼ clove)
lime juice
coriander (cilantro) which I had forgotten but should be there
salt, pepper, cayenne
grated cheddar
toasted cumin crema (a tablespoon of whole cumin seeds + a few tablespoons of crème fraîche or sour cream, see below for method) or ranch dressing or sour cream

Heat a shallow pan or cast-iron skillet with some olive oil and brown the meat. Break up all the bigger pieces with a wooden spoon or spatula to get an even ‘rubble’. Add the various spices, oregano, tomato purée, salsas or sauces and water to get a thicker sauce like consistency and stir. Include the drained beans and let it simmer and reduce the liquid until you get thick and drier base. I think it does need a little time (15-20 minutes) for all the flavours to meld.

While the meat and beans simmer prepare the rest of the trimmings: shred some salad leaves into fine ribbons, I used endive because we had it and I would definitely use it again since it is more malleable than iceberg and has a (slight bitter) taste, not so much crunch and provides a nice cushion for the meat. Further make a chunky avocado-tomato salsa (not a guacamole but with the same ingredients) and mix the chopped tomatoes, avocado, onion, garlic, & coriander and season with salt, pepper, cayenne and lime. For the cumin crema: toast a tablespoon of whole cumin seeds in a dry pan until fragrant, grind them in a pestle and mortar and add a few tablespoons of crème fraîche or sour cream for the cumin crema along with some salt.

Preheat the oven to 180°C or 350° F and bake the taco shells for about 5 minutes until crispy. A little longer does not worry me.

Align all your trimmings and start constructing the tacos: salad ribbons in the bottom, use some on a plate to hold the tacos in position (nice to look at, too), meat&beans, avocado-tomato-salsa, cheddar and a blob of cumin crema (or ranch dressing or sour cream). Switch on TV & DVD player, grab napkins and enjoy.