Potato Fish Cakes

Remember that delicious Pan Roasted Halibut in a Potato Dill Crust we made yesterday? Well, here is a perfect recipe to use up the leftovers. We all know leftover fish never tastes good like it did when it was first cooked. But this recipe turns leftover fish and leftover mashed potatoes into something fresh, crisp and delicious!! It was no problem getting hubby to eat leftovers when I served them to him like this. :)

Potato Fish Cakes
Inspired by Chef at Home - by Michael Smith

Ingredients:

• 4 pieces leftover pan roasted halibut
• a couple cups of leftover roasted garlic mashed potatoes (or regular would work too)
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 eggs, whisked together
• 1 tbsp hot sweet mustard
• 1/4 cup fresh dill, finely minced
• 1 red jalepeno pepper, seeded and finely diced
• 1 recipe potato dill crust from yesterdays Pan Roasted Halibut in a Potato Dill Crust
• a couple tbsp butter
• a couple lugs of olive oil

Method:

1. Preheat saute pan or non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add a splash of oil to the pan and a tbsp of butter to coat the bottom of the skillet with a thin film.
2. With a potato masher, mash the leftover halibut and the potatoes with the eggs, mustard, dill, jalepeno pepper until combined. Season to taste with sea salt and black pepper.
3. Prepare potato dill crust. Using approximately 1/4 cup portions of the potato fish mixture, shape into patties. Dredge in the potato dill crust mixture until well coated. Add to hot skillet and fry until bottom is golden and crisp. Flip and repeat on the other side.
4. Repeat until all cakes are cooked. Serve with lemon dill cream or leftover roasted garlic cream sauce from yesterdays recipe.

These are so unbelievably delicious! I couldn't get over how good they were. I never ever eat leftover fish, but going forward, I will always make an exception for this recipe. You can also use salmon or other types of fish in this recipe. You can mix up the herbs or omit the spicy pepper depending on your tastes. Be creative and cook what you like!

Happy Cooking my Friends!

Pan Roasted Halibut in Potato Dill Crust with Roasted Garlic Cream

Happy Wednesday everyone! We are over halfway through this week... and for me that is a good thing!! It is smokin' busy at work this week with deadlines everywhere I look. I can't wait for the weekend (even though I'll likely have to work part of it... Its still the weekend!!). I've been looking forward to sharing this post with you all week. Don't judge a post by its pictures (well at least, not in this case), because this is seriously good! You MUST make it this weekend when you have time. Even non-fish lovers will seriously love this meal. Its delicious and it doesn't get that typical "fishy" taste or smell that some fish dishes get.

 

This recipe is from my new cookbook No More Secrets, Recipes from the Cow Bay Cafe by Adriene Johnston. This is a seriously amazing cookbook!! The best part about it is that its written by a womon from a small town in Northern British Columbia right near where I grew up. Soooo of course I'm going to love it.

Any way, lets check out this recipe - I'm a little tired right now because I just worked a 14 hour day, so please excuse me if my post isn't as coherent (or as long) as usual. :)

 Pan Roasted Halibut

Recipe from No More Secrets

Ingredients:

Roasted Garlic:

• 6 bulbs garlic
• 3 sprigs fresh rosemary, halved
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Garlic Cream:

• 1 bulb roasted garlic
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1 tsp kosher salt (I would probably just use half a tsp next time i make this - it was a touch salty)
• 1/4 tsp chile flakes
• a little fresh grated nutmeg
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp whole fresh black peppercorns

Potato Crust:

• 3/4 c instant dry potato flakes
• 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp dry dill
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 c fresh dill, finely chopped

• 6 8-oz pieces fresh halibut (thawed, frozen halibut will work in a pinch too)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. To roast garlic, remove the excess outer skin, trim off the stem end and place the garlic bulbs in a small pie pan. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Place the rosemary sprigs on top of the garlic. Drizzle the olive oil over the garlic bulbs. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and roast in the preheated oven for 50 minutes and reserve.
3. To make the garlic cream, add the cream, salt, chile flakes, bay leaf and peppercorns. Squeeze out the soft garlic from the roasted garlic bulb and add it to the cream. Drop the skins into the sauce too. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently until thickened and reduced by half.
4. Strain the garlic mixture through a sieve and press on the garlic until it is all pushed through the sieve and you are only left with the skins and debris. Discard the stuff in the sieve and reserve the cream until needed. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the cream to prevent the formation of a skin.
5. For the potato crust, simply combine the potato flakes, salt, garlic powder, dry dill, pepper, and fresh dill in a bowl. Mix together and reserve until needed.
6. Place two large skillets in the oven and heat for 15 minutes.
7. When you are ready to cook, dry the pieces of halibut and dredge them in the potato crust mixture.
8. Remove the hot skillets from the oven and place over medium high heat. Pour about four tsp of vegetable oil into the skillet and then place fish in the skillets. Do not crowd the pans. Allow the fish to cook in the oil until the bottoms are golden brown and crisp-looking.
9. Gently flip the fish over and then put the pans into the oven and cook for about 7 minutes per inch of thickness at the thickest part of the fish.
10. When cooked, remove the fish to the serving dishes and pour some of the garlic cream into the hot pans. When cream is hot, pour it over the cooked fish. Serve with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli.

  



I know, this seems like a lot of steps, but it really does come together relatively quickly. You can roast the garlic and make the garlic cream sauce ahead of time if you're having a dinner party and then all you've got to do is cook the fish and you're set to impress your guests.

Hope you enjoy this one. Stay tuned for a delicious post tomorrow on how to use the leftovers from this recipe (if you're lucky enough to have leftovers!).

Happy Cooking my Friends!

Bread Baking Day #40 - Bread with Curd

I've had a hard time getting myself organized enough to participate in the monthly Bread Baking Day for the last couple of months, but I promised myself I would actually participate this month! I was pleasantly surprised that this month's challenge, hosted by Zorra Kochtopf of the blog kochtopf.twoday.net , was to bake bread with curd. Zorra noted that any curd could be used in making this bread and it could be homemade or store bought.

I chose to make mine with dry curd cottage cheese. I made this recipe for Dill Cottage Cheese Batter Bread. It was very easy and called for very basic ingredients. This was a great challenge, so thank you to Zorra for hosting!

I thought the bread dough looked a little yucky to start with and before it was baked, but the change that took place while baking was incredible. The bread is light and airy in texture with considerable flavour from the dill and the onions and the curds of cottage cheese browned up so nicely to add beautiful colour to the loaf of bread.

Do try out this recipe if you get a chance! And if you don't get a chance to try this recipe out, at least take a minute to check out the roundup of recipes the week after June 1st on Zorra's website. You will be amazed at all of the creativity of the members of this great group. And maybe, just maybe, you will be inspired to participate next month!!

Happy Baking my Friends!

And happy bread baking day #40 to all my bread baking day friends too!! :)

Smoked Salmon Canapes

So, I just have to say - dry smoked salmon is where its at! So delicious. If you haven't tried it, now is the time. I can't stop eating it whenever we buy it, so you can imagine how excited I was to find this recipe by chef Michael Smith in his Chef at Home cookbook. I changed the recipe quite a bit, but his was my inspiration.

Try this recipe out this weekend if you're having company over. You can whip it up in no time so you can spend more time with your guests rather than in the kitchen. Unless of course they're not your favorite guests, in which case, find a more time consuming appetizer to make!! ;)

Smoked Salmon Canapes

Recipe adapted from Chef at Home

Ingredients:

• a couple pieces of dry smoked pepper salmon (or whatever flavour you can find)


• 1/2 cup softened cream cheese


• 1 tbsp mustard


• some chives finely chopped


• fresh dill, finely chopped


• crackers

Method:

1. Mix together cream cheese, mustard, chives, dill. Place mixture into a piping bag. Pipe blobs onto your crackers and top with a small slice of the smoked salmon. Garnish with more dill or chives if desired.


2. Be prepared to make a lot of these because your guests will eagerly gobble them up.

Pretty easy huh? I told you so! I hope you enjoy this recipe and get to give it a try this weekend.

Happy Cooking my Friends!