Proper British Fish Cakes - Crispy Potato & Fish Patties - Food Wishes

[Music] hello this is chef john from foodwishes.com with proper british fish cakes that's right i've been streaming a lot of british cooking shows lately which is what inspired this video and i wasn't just happy with how these came out i was absolutely chuffed and if you don't know what that means you have not been watching enough british cooking shows and not only do these look and taste amazing they are also very inexpensive to make so yes we're fighting inflation and eating delicious food at the same time and to get started we're going to begin at the end by mixing up a tartar sauce we're going to serve our fish cakes with which includes some mayonnaise some chopped up capers a nice spoon of prepared horseradish plus a little touch of dijon mustard and then we definitely want some fresh herbs and i'm gonna do some freshly chopped italian parsley plus some freshly chopped tarragon which as you might know is one of my all-time favorite herbs for seafood and then besides that we'll also add a little bit of mint shallot although some sliced up green onions or just a little bit of minced up regular onion would work and then last but never least we'll add a few shakes of cayenne and that's it we'll take a spoon and give this a mix and there are two reasons we want to do this first okay first of all these sauces are always better if we let them sit for a little while and let all those flavors mingle and develop in the fridge but also we're going to add a spoon of this to our potato and fish mixture so we need to have this ready before we move on to that and that's it once mixed we'll give it a taste for seasoning remembering though that we're not going to eat this straight so it really should be nice and sharp and intense in flavor and once we're happy with how that tastes we'll go ahead and pop that in the fridge until we need it and once that's set we can move on to our fish and what i have here is one pound of cod although if he can get it i think we're supposed to be using haddock but the cod works really really well and while we can cook these pieces as is i do like to cut them in like one one and a half inch strips first since i do think it makes the next step a little easier and yes we do want to use fish that doesn't have any skin or bones and then once we have our fish cut what we'll do is add a little bit of milk to a saucepan plus we'll toss in one bay leaf at which point we'll transfer our freshly cut fish over the top in one nice single uniform layer and then we'll season the top generously with salt before we head to the stove to place this over medium heat and what we're going to do is bring this up to a simmer and while it does i like to take a spoon and make sure it's not sticking to the edges of the pan because that is not something we want to happen but anyway as soon as the mixture does start to simmer we'll give it a quick stir with our spoon and then we're only going to let this cook for about a minute or so all right just until these pieces of fish firm up a little and where they're no longer mushy and raw inside but we don't want this cooked all the way through where all these pieces start falling apart so once we get this to the point where we can cut one of these pieces in half with a spoon using a little bit of effort but it doesn't just collapse on its own that's the point where we want to stop and turn off the heat and we will cover this and we'll let that fish sit in that hot milk for five minutes which should theoretically be the perfect amount of time to finish the cooking and then after five minutes we'll go ahead and pull it off the heat and we will transfer that into a strainer set over a bowl and then i'm going to transfer my strainer onto a bowl so that fish is not sitting over that hot milk because we do want this to cool down before we add it to our potato mixture which is going to be the next step and if everything's gone according to plan after resting in that hot milk our pieces of fish should be easily flakeable yet still very moist and definitely not dry so that was looking just about perfect and at this point we can pop it in the fridge until it's ready to use and once that's set we can move on to make our mashed potatoes and for one pound of fish we will boil exactly 12 ounces of russet potato in very generously salted water and then what we'll do is cook these potatoes until they're perfectly soft and tender but not falling apart and absorbing a whole bunch of extra water so please check early and often so you can catch these at the perfect point of doneness okay the only thing worse than an overcooked potato would be an undercooked potato which would be absolutely dreadful in these fish cakes and then once our potatoes are perfect we will drain those very very very well and we'll transfer them into a bowl at which point we will mash those up and some people like to leave chunks of unmashed potato right i hear that's how the queen likes hers but personally i like to get these fairly smooth oh and i should mention i said to use russet potato which would be the closest thing to the actual potato used in england which is called maris piper but from what i hear they're pretty much identical and then what we'll do once that's mashed is season it up with some salt a little pinch of freshly ground black pepper and of course a few shakes of cayenne and then one of the other many secrets to this recipe we will add about a teaspoon of freshly grated lemon zest which as you well know is where all that beautiful lemon flavor comes from and then we'll finish this up a little bit of freshly chopped italian parsley plus some freshly and finely sliced chives and then last but not least as promised one heaping spoonful of our previously made tartar sauce just add a little bit of richness and of course flavor and that's it we'll take a spoon and give this a quick mix before we move on to the flaking of the fish and the reason we want to give this a good mix now is because if we added the fission at this point and then we mix this enough to distribute all the ingredients our pieces of fish might get broken up too small so what we'll do is mix this thoroughly at this point and then we will stop and we will take our chilled well-drained fish and we will flake it over the top okay breaking it up kind of small but not too small because as we stir those pieces we'll break down a little more and by the time i do have everything evenly mixed i'm hoping they're going to be the perfect size which only the maker of the fish cake can actually decide and you can make these things as chunky or smooth as you want but they do have a much nicer much lighter texture if everything's not totally mashed into a paste but in any event once that's mixed what we'll do is smooth down the top and then use the tip of our spoon to divide this into four sections and then we'll scoop out exactly one fourth of our mixture and we'll form that into a patty and transfer that onto a plate and by the way this stuff is really easy to shape as long as it's still kind of warm or room temp so i do not recommend trying to refrigerate this mixture and then try to shape your cakes since it's much much easier at this point and then once we have those portions formed we'll want to coat both sides with flour which i'm going to do by tossing some in a strainer and dusting it over the top and i know a lot of people like to do this by tossing it in a pan of flour but that way you have to throw away everything you don't use so i think this method is more efficient and if you're thinking that sounds great but shouldn't you put flower down on the plate first so you didn't have to flip these well yes i should have that's a great point and i was thinking the exact same thing myself but anyway the point is we want those coated in flour and then if we were using classic dredging technique these would each be dipped in beaten egg before we coated them in breadcrumbs but just like the flour i'm going to do this on the plate just using one egg and what we'll do is pour about half of that over the top and we'll use a pastry brush to brush that over the top and on the sides and then we'll flip them over and pour for the rest and do the other side and by using this method we can get away just using one egg whereas if we put that one egg in a bowl and tried to dip these by the time we got into the fourth cake the little bit of egg that would be left would be mostly flour from the other three and it might be a little challenging to get these evenly coated and as you can see one egg is definitely enough to coat them all but only because we're applying it evenly to all these at the same time and that's it once egged we can transfer these on top of some panko breadcrumbs and then pour some more over the top and we will toss those around until completely and utterly coated so anyway that is my alternative dredging station method and if you want to do yours in a traditional manner with a pana flower and a bowl of eggs and a pan of breadcrumbs go ahead i mean you are after all the sister sledge of how to dredge and since we are family i won't get upset but i really do think my system is better and less wasteful and that's it once those are breaded we can cook them right away or we can wrap them up and pop them in the fridge until we need them at which point there are several ways to cook these and i'm going to show you two of them the first of which would be pan frying over medium heat and about a quarter inch of vegetable oil and we do want to get that oil hot before we put the cake in okay when it hits the oil this should start bubbling and yes i said medium heat since we don't want the outside getting really dark in like a minute and the inside's still cold but assuming that oil was hot and you made yours roughly the same size i did these are going to pan fry for about three to four minutes per side or until the inside's heated through and the outside is beautifully golden brown and crispy and that's it after draining that on a paper towel we'll go ahead and serve that up maybe next to a little bit of watercress and maybe some fresh lemon and of course our beautiful homemade tartar sauce garnished with a strategically placed shake of cayenne and that's it i squeezed over some lemon and then a fork full of the aforementioned tartar sauce and bob's your uncle i was ready to enjoy and even though i was starving and eating from like three feet away from the wrong side of the plate and it took me like a minute to finally get it on the fork that my friends really was truly amazing and as i said in the intro i wasn't just happy i was absolutely chuffed which if you're not up on your british slang basically means you're extremely happy and beyond delighted and the reason for my profoundly chuffed state is because i love fish in all forms plus as you know i have a mashed potato fetish and i adore all things that are breaded and fried crispy which is why for me this is as good as it gets and above and beyond that perfect crispy coating and the ideal ratio between fish and potato because we didn't pulverize our fish into tiny pieces and we didn't use overcooked waterlogged potatoes this actually has a surprisingly light texture and it's not nearly as heavy as one might think oh and as far as the pan frying goes that is a great method and works beautifully the only slight downside the entire side does not get golden brown which by the way in the business we refer to as tan lines and while that doesn't really affect the eating experience at all it is really just a visual thing if we do want total and complete browning then you really do need to deep fry these which i did here so i could show you a second method and also so i could take some contractually obligated pictures of a perfectly browned one sans tan lines and if you are going to deep fry i recommend about three to four minutes at 350 and not that i needed a third reason but since the first bite on that pan fried one was so awkward i wanted to redeem myself and get a perfect first bite on this one so i went ahead and drained that on a paper towel as well and this time served it up next to a tomato and arugula salad and again i squeezed on some lemon plus a little bit of that amazing fresh tartar sauce and i went in for a much less awkward much more graceful bite oh yeah nailed it but anyway that's it my take on what i consider a proper british fish cake if you like fish and or potatoes and crispy fried things and you're fighting inflation and trying to stretch that food budget at the store then i really do hope you give these a try soon so please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts a printable written recipe and much more info as usual and as always [Music] you

Channel: Food Wishes

Views: 166,047

Keywords: Fish, Cakes, British, potato, crispy, easy, fried, recipe, chef, john, food, wishes, cooking, seafood, patties

Id: 2VTg3v5mYlk

Length: 12min 22sec (742 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 26 2022