I would choose fish cakes over meatballs at any occasion. They are light, delicate, and incredibly tender. Meat, fish, grain, and vegetable patties are insanely popular across German cuisine. It’s said that the American hamburger was invented by putting German meatballs on a slice of bread.
Now, a fish cake or meatball is quite different from how you would prepare a burger. For these, plain minced meat won’t do it. You need to loosen the batter with bread cubes and season it with spices. I know that it is maybe a bastardization of American cuisine but in my family, we always prepare burgers with Germans-style meatballs or fish cakes rather than plain meat. The burgers are just so much juicier and more flavorful that way.
But for these fish cakes, you won’t need any toasted bread slices. Although you could make a sandwich out of them, I like to enjoy them plain with cucumber yogurt. It’s a popular condiment in Germany and similar to the Greek tzatziki sauce. I don’t add any garlic to my cucumber yogurt for two reasons:
- Not everything has to have garlic in it to taste good. I think it’s an overused ingredient by many. Garlic has a very strong flavor that can overpower a lot of the more subtle notes.
- Raw garlic makes the yogurt very pungent. The fishcakes already have white pepper in them so they are a little spicy. The cucumber yogurt should provide a contrast to that.
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The right choice of fish for fish cakes
Cod is my preferred choice for fish cakes but you can use any white fish fillet that you prefer. Pollock or tilapia would work evenly well. You shouldn’t use any expensive fish with a superior texture and flavor. The fish gets chopped and seasoned with pungent spices like mustard, capers, and white pepper. So the fish doesn’t need to be flavorful, to begin with. It’s ok if it is neutral in taste.
I chop the fish by hand with two cleavers but you can use your food processor if you like. Just make sure to keep the texture a little coarse and don’t blitz the fish too smooth. It’s ok if the fish is a little chunky. That will give the fish cakes a better texture.
The milk-soaked bread roll cubes won’t be enough to bind the batter sufficiently. It is too wet to hold together by itself. That’s why you have to add some breadcrumbs. I specify 1-2 tablespoons in my recipe. That’s enough for the batter to just come together. It’s very tender at this stage but it should hold its shape nicely. If you add too many breadcrumbs, your fish cakes won’t be as juicy and tender.
When frying fish cakes, always use enough oil. They need to be almost shallow fried for the best results. A lot of novice cooks make the mistake and add too little oil to the pan. The fish cakes then burn on the surface before they are cooked in the center. It’s an important lesson I had to learn too. Adding too little oil to a cooking pan means unevenly cooked food that is always at risk of burning. Just because you’re using more oil, doesn’t mean it all gets absorbed into your food. Once the crust of fried foods has formed, there is no increased oil uptake.
It’s best to enjoy these fish cakes with a salad on the side such as:
Fish Cakes with Cucumber Yogurt (‘Fischküchle mit Gurkenjoghurt’)
Ingredients
For the cucumber yogurt:
- 1 European cucumber, finely shredded
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 12 ounces (340 g) regular full-fat or Greek yogurt (3.8 or 10 % fat content)
- 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
- 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon chopped mint leaves
For the fish cakes:
- 1/3 cup whole milk, heated just below a light simmer
- 1 white bread roll, cut into small cubes
- 1 pound (450 g) cod fillet, chopped into a rough paste (you can do it by hand or use your food processor)
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped capers
- 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon chopped dill leaves
- 1/3 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
- 1/3 teaspoon ground white pepper
- 1/3 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 egg, size M
- salt, to taste
- 1-2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
- clarified butter, for frying
Instructions
Prepare the cucumber yogurt:
- Add the salt and sugar to the shredded cucumber and leave to marinate for 10 minutes. Then wrap the cucumber shreds in a kitchen towel or cheesecloth and squeeze out any excess moisture. The cucumber shreds need to be very dry as they would otherwise water down the yogurt.
- In a bowl, whisk together the yogurt, cucumber, vinegar, olive oil, and mint leaves. Add more salt and/ or vinegar to taste. Cover the cucumber yogurt and let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Prepare the fish cakes:
- Pour the hot milk over the bread roll cubes and leave them to soak for at least 10 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the chopped cod, soaked bread roll cubes, capers, mustard, dill leaves, coriander seeds, white pepper, cumin, sugar, and egg. Mix briefly and season to taste with salt. Add 1-2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs to bind the batter. It should still be very soft but hold its shape when formed into a patty. Form the batter into individual fish cakes of your preferred size.
- Heat plenty of clarified butter over medium heat in a large nonstick saute pan. The fat needs to completely cover the pan surface and should be at least 1/4-inch high to not burn your fish cakes. Fit as many fish cakes as possible into your pan and fry until golden brown on the first side, about 3-4 minutes. Carefully turn them over and fry on the other side until cooked through and golden brown on both sides. Place the fried fish cakes on a paper towel to drain and proceed to fry fish cakes until all the batter is used up.
- Serve the fish cakes hot together with the cucumber yogurt for dipping.
