Fish Cakes With A Twist

A few days ago a friend of mine gave me several bags of dry, salt pollock. Whenever someone gives me some I usually give it to my Dad because he loves salt fish. Being a Nova Scotian girl you'd think that I would too but it has never been one of my favourite things to eat, but I decided that it was high time that I tried it again. 

I decided to make fish cakes. I have made fish cakes before but always from fresh fish, not the dry salted kind. I put the fish in a pot of cold water and brought it to a boil, then drained the water off and repeated the process three times to get the salt out of the fish. Next I boiled a pot full of potatoes. I put a large onion through my food processor (only because my husband hates biting down into a piece of onion) and added the fish to the onion and let the food processor chop it all together. Then I drained and mashed my potatoes. After adding margarine to them, I added the fish and onion mixture and some Italian Seasoning which consists of marjoram,thyme,rosemary,savory, sage, oregano and basil. I used my potato masher to blend everything together. 

I put a good portion of olive oil in my cast iron pan and waited for it to get hot. Then I shaped my potato and fish mixture into patties and placed them in the iron pan. I browned both sides and served them with a mixture of vegetables. My husband and I both loved them but since we both like things crispy, I decided to put the left over mixture in my mini loaf pans which I had greased liberally. I sprayed the tops of each mini loaf with cooking spray and baked them in the oven for 30 min. Wow! What a difference! They're amazing!

My way of making fish cakes may not be the traditional way to make them but they are incredible. The top, bottom and all sides are golden and crispy and the inside of each loaf is delicious. So that's the twist to ordinary fish cakes: make them in mini loaf pans or you could even use a muffin pan. It will work either way and be just as good. Enjoy!

P.S. I've got a feeling that Dad won't be getting as much dry, salted fish as he used to.