There are lots of things to do with smoked fish other than break off chunks and shove them into your mouth — which I admit is one of my most favorite approaches.
But you can make salads, chowders and fish cakes, to name a few options, and I ran across a smoked fish cake recipe, which I’ve saved from the November 1999 edition of Food &Wine.
Chef Kerry Sear opened Cascadia Restaurant in Seattle that summer (he closed it in 2008), and the magazine gave it a big splash in an article with a selection of recipes from his menus.
We sampled several of them in our kitchen and emphatically decided to go for the real (and very pricey) deal in Belltown. It was a delicious experience, and we made at least one trip there each year until it vanished from the changing restaurant scene.
But we’ll always have the smoked fish cakes recipe. Here’s looking at you, Cascadia.
Smoked fish cakes with root-vegetable slaw and onion mustard sauce
Any kind of smoked fish will do. Sear used cod, and my most recent effort combined salmon and trout. The root-vegetables are peeled and raw. A mandoline with a julienne blade comes in very handy. I’ve also doubled the amounts of slaw ingredients.
SLAW
1 cup julienned celery root
1 cup julienned carrot
1 cup julienned parsnip
4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Salt and freshly ground pepper
In a medium bowl, combine the celery root, carrot and parsnip. Add the vinegar and parsley, season with salt and pepper and toss well.
FISH CAKES
3 medium baking potatoes
1 pound skinless, boneless smoked fish, flaked
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup coarsely chopped chives
1/4 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt (or not, if you think smoked fish is salty enough)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 cup fine fresh bread crumbs
Canola oil, for frying
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roast the potatoes for about 35 minutes, or until tender. Let cool slightly, then peel the potatoes and pass them through a ricer or coarse sieve.
In a bowl, combine the potatoes, smoked fish, eggs, butter, chives, parsley, salt and pepper. Shape the mixture into 16 patties, or eight larger ones if you want this to be a main course. Uncooked fish cakes can be refrigerated overnight, if you want to prepare ahead.
Lower the oven temperature to 250 degrees. Spread the bread crumbs on a plate. Dredge the fish cakes in the bread crumbs and tap off any excess.
In a large skillet, heat 1/4-inch of canola oil until almost smoking. Fry the fish cakes in batches over medium heat until browned and crisp, about 3 minutes. Turn the fish cakes, and cook until browned on the bottom, about 2 minutes longer. Keep warm in the oven while you fry the rest of the cakes.
ONION MUSTARD SAUCE
1small onion, minced
1/2cup dry white wine
1/2cup heavy cream
2tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1/4cup whole-grain mustard
Salt and freshly ground pepper
In a small saucepan, combine the onion and white wine and simmer over moderate heat until the wine is reduced to 1 tablespoon, about 5 minutes. Add the heavy cream and bring to a boil. Transfer the mixture to a blender and puree. Reduce the speed to low, add the butter one piece at a time, until the sauce is smooth.
Scrape the onion sauce into a small saucepan and stir in the mustard. Season with salt and pepper. Rewarm the sauce over low heat, stirring constantly. Serve warm. The mustard sauce can be refrigerated overnight. Gently reheat, whisking constantly.
Spoon the sauce onto plates. Set two fish cakes in the sauce on each plate, spoon the root-vegetable slaw on top and serve.
Kerry Sear/Food &Wine November 1999
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