Hamburger Pannfisch

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide heavy frying pan, 28 to 30cm
• •Small saucepan
• •Fish spatula or broad turner
• •Fine whisk

Instructions

1. 1

   Set the fish

   If you're using leftover poached fish, pick through it with your fingers and lift out any bones, then break it into large flakes. Large pieces survive the pan; small crumbs dry before they brown. If starting with raw fish, poach it gently in salted water with a slice of onion for 6 to 8 minutes, just until it flakes, then save 250ml of the liquor for the sauce.

   Cod, haddock, pollock, and coalfish all belong here. Salmon works if that's what the larder gives you, but the old Hamburg pan was white fish first.
2. 2

   Slice the potatoes

   Peel the cold boiled potatoes and slice them 5mm thick. Cold waxy potatoes have firmed up overnight, so the slices fry with edges instead of breaking into mash. If the potatoes are freshly boiled and warm, spread the slices on a tray for 20 minutes so the surface dries before they meet the fat.

3. 3

   Make mustard sauce

   Melt 30g butter in a small saucepan and cook the diced onion until soft and pale, because browned onion would turn the sauce sweet and heavy. Stir in the flour and cook it for 2 minutes so the raw flour taste goes, then whisk in the fish liquor and milk little by little. Simmer 5 minutes until smooth and spoon-coating, then take it off the hard boil and stir in both mustards, vinegar or pickle brine, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Mustard goes in at the end because boiling dulls its bite.

4. 4

   Brown the potatoes

   Heat the oil or clarified butter in a wide frying pan over medium-high heat and lay the potato slices in one layer. Leave them alone until the underside is golden before turning; movement steals the crust. Brown them in batches if the pan is crowded, because crowded potatoes steam soft and no one asked for that.

5. 5

   Fold in fish

   Return all the potatoes to the pan with 1 tablespoon butter, then tuck the fish pieces between them and turn gently for 2 to 3 minutes, just until the fish takes a few golden edges. The fish is already cooked, so this is warming and browning, not cooking it a second time into rope.

6. 6

   Finish and serve

   Spoon the mustard sauce over the fish and potatoes or serve it beside the pan, Hamburg cooks do both. Scatter with dill and parsley, add lemon wedges, and taste before it leaves the stove. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss: the acid and herbs go last so the plate stays bright.

Chef Tips

• •Boil the potatoes the day before if you can. A cold potato slices clean and browns clean; a hot potato smears, and then you're frying paste.
• •Save the fish liquor. Even a small cup from poaching carries more fish character than water, and it makes the mustard sauce taste like the pan it belongs to. Weggeworfen wird nichts.
• •Do not boil the mustard after it goes into the sauce. Keep it below a hard simmer and the sharpness stays alive; boil it hard and you've made beige gravy with a memory of mustard.
• •Serve with pickled cucumbers or a small beet salad. The vinegar cuts the butter and fish, which is why the northern table keeps pickles close.

Advance Preparation

• •Boil the potatoes in their skins up to 2 days ahead and chill them uncovered once cool; the dry surface helps them brown.
• •Poach the fish up to 1 day ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator. Save the strained poaching liquor separately for the sauce.
• •The mustard sauce can be made a few hours ahead, but reheat it gently and loosen with a splash of milk or fish liquor. Add a fresh spoon of mustard at the end if the edge has softened.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 465g)