Fischfrikadellen

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide heavy skillet, 28cm
• •Fish tweezers or clean fingers for checking bones
• •Mixing bowl
• •Thin fish spatula

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the roll

   Tear the stale Brötchen into a bowl and pour over the milk. Leave it 10 minutes, then squeeze it hard in your fist until damp, not wet. The bread is there to hold moisture inside the fish cake; leave it dripping and the mixture turns slack in the pan.

2. 2

   Soften the onion

   Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a small pan and cook the minced onion over medium-low heat until soft and pale, about 5 minutes. Don't brown it. Raw onion stays sharp inside a quick-fried fish cake, while browned onion pulls the flavour toward meat Frikadellen. This is fish. Let it taste like fish.

3. 3

   Flake the fish

   Check the cooked fish carefully for bones, then flake it with your fingers into pieces about the size of small coins. Keep some shape. If you mash the fish fine, the cakes fry dense instead of tender, and no mustard will save that.

4. 4

   Mix the cakes

   Fold the fish with the squeezed roll, softened onion, egg, mustard, herbs, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, and pepper until the mixture just holds together. Press a spoonful in your palm. If it cracks badly, add a teaspoon of milk; if it slumps, add a spoon of breadcrumbs. Erst verstehen, dann kochen.

   Taste the cooked fish before salting. Leftover poached fish may be mild, but smoked fish or fish cooked in salted water can already carry enough salt.
5. 5

   Shape and chill

   Shape 8 cakes, each about 2cm thick, and coat them lightly in the fine breadcrumbs. Set them on a plate and chill 30 minutes. Cold firms the egg and bread around the fish, so the crust can set before the inside tries to come apart.

6. 6

   Fry gently

   Heat the oil and butter in a wide skillet over medium heat. Fry the cakes 3 to 4 minutes per side, turning once, until the crust is deep golden and crisp at the edges. If the crumbs darken too fast, runter mit der Temperatur. The fish is already cooked; you're setting the binder and building the crust, not punishing it.

7. 7

   Serve at once

   Drain the Fischfrikadellen briefly on paper and serve with boiled potatoes, cucumber salad, mustard, or a spoon of quark with herbs. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss: taste one hot, then add the final pinch of salt only if it needs it. Schön ist, was schmeckt.

Chef Tips

• •Use cooked white fish with clean flakes: cod, haddock, pollock, or saithe. Oily fish can work in part, especially a little smoked mackerel or smoked haddock, but all oily fish makes the cakes heavy.
• •Stale bread is better than fresh. Fresh bread turns gummy when soaked; stale bread drinks the milk, squeezes clean, and binds without making paste.
• •Chill the shaped cakes. It sounds like waiting, but it's the difference between a neat Frikadelle and fish scramble with crumbs.
• •Serve with Gurkensalat, cucumber salad, or boiled potatoes. A spoon of mustard is enough sauce. Nicht aus dem Glas.

Advance Preparation

• •Cooked fish can be flaked and refrigerated up to 1 day ahead. Keep it covered and cold, then smell it before using; fish tells the truth quickly.
• •The shaped, breaded cakes can be chilled up to 6 hours before frying. Cover them lightly so the crumb coating doesn't dry into a hard shell.
• •Leftover cooked Fischfrikadellen keep 1 day in the refrigerator. Reheat them in a skillet over medium-low heat so the crust returns; a microwave softens the outside.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 215g)