Brazilian Fishcakes with Molho

I like to make fishcakes whenever I have leftover cooked fish, sometimes from a whole fish we’ve put on the barbecue or baked in the oven. Turn leftover fish into Brazilian fishcakes, for a whole new meal your family will love. 

This is my first time to take part in Cooked in Translation and our host for this month is the lovely Soni Sinha (which means she gets to choose the international dish we will interpret) from Soni’s Food for Thought.  She has chosen fishcakes!  But you probably guessed that from my title.  My mind went immediately to the bolinhos de bacalau or cod balls  (Doesn’t it sound better in Portguese?  Most things do.) we loved when we lived in Brazil.  Salted cod is soaked until it is tender again, then flaked and mixed with mashed potatoes and seasonings.  Little balls of this mixture are deep-fried to a golden crust.  I am not a fan of deep-frying, at least at home, so I decided to make the mixture, form it into patties and pan-fry, adding the typical Brazilian molho or sauce to finish.  Fishcakes are a wonderful use of leftover fish so, instead of salted cod, I used grilled Grouper, but you could use any flakey fish.  Gotta say, these got good reviews at home and I would make this again! 

Ingredients

For the fishcakes:

About 2 cups or 225g cooked fish, deboned

7 oz or 200g potatoes

1 small onion

1 clove garlic

2 fresh chilies

Small bunch cilantro or coriander leaves

Sea salt

Black pepper

1 egg

For the molho:

1 medium tomato

1 small green bell pepper

1 small onion

1 medium lime (or two tablespoons juice)

1/8 – 1/4 cup or 30-60ml Olive oil

Sea salt

Black pepper

Method

Using a couple of forks, pull your fish into small pieces.  This particular Grouper was a big guy and needed a knife to cut him up.  It was the weirdest thing because he was definitely not overcooked but even his skin was tough.  His flavor, though, was outstanding.

Peel and cube your potatoes and put them to boil in lightly salted water.

Finely minced your onions, fresh chilies and garlic cloves.

Rinse the cilantro and remove any thick and woody stems. Gather it up in a small ball.  Finely mince it as well, soft stems and all.

Meanwhile, your potatoes are probably cooked.  Make sure a fork goes into the cubes very easily.  Yes?  Okay, then drain out the water and mash the potatoes until very smooth.  Set aside to cool for a few minutes.  I removed mine from the hot pot after mashing so that they would cool faster.

Mix together the fish and vegetables, including the cooled potatoes, and add a light sprinkle of salt and a couple of good grinds of black pepper.   Stir well.

Add in your one egg and mix thoroughly.

Divide the mixture evenly into four patties.

Dampen your hands and use them to form patties with the mixture.  Rest them on a plate covered with cling film.  The cling film helps them not stick to the plate and also gives you a way to get under them without mashing the beautiful patty when removing to fry.

Cover the patties with cling film and chill for 30 minutes (or until you are ready to eat.)

To make the molho, cut your tomato in half and remove the seeds.  Do the same with your bell pepper.  Cut them both into small pieces.

 Peel and dice the onion.

Mix all three together and add a good sprinkle of sea salt and a generous few grinds of fresh black pepper.

Squeeze your lime into the bowl – or if your lime has a lot of seeds, into another bowl so you can remove the seeds before adding.

Drizzle in olive oil and stir, tasting occasionally to see if more is needed.   Set aside.

When you are ready to eat, drizzle a little olive oil into a non-stick pan and gently place the fish cakes in the oil.  Cook over a medium heat and put on a lid so that the insides of the patties will warm as well.

Allow to brown on the first side before trying to turn them over.

Turn a couple of times until both sides are nicely browned and the patties are heated through.

Serve topped with a couple of spoonsful of the molho.

If you want to go completely Brazilian, the full meal could include black beans, rice and farofa, which is manioc flour, toasted with butter and seasoned with garlic.   It can sometimes be found online or in Latin American shops.  Or if you are in Cairo, in my freezer.

Enjoy!

And to take the Cooked in Translation one step farther, the next day,  I made a sandwich, spreading homemade hummus and fresh habanero pepper sauce inside half of a pita bread and filling it with crumbled fishcake topped with molho, adding a little Middle Eastern flair to the spicy Brazilian fish.  Good food has no borders!  (And isn't that the point?)

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Cardamom Cinnamon Apricot Muffins for Muffin Monday

There are some flavors that just seem to go together.  Apples and cinnamon, tomatoes and garlic, chocolate and peanut butter, bacon and everything.  When I got the recipe for this week’s Muffin Monday, I wasn’t so sure.  The original Epicurious recipe pairing was cinnamon and blueberries.  I’ve never tried the combination and it’s probably lovely but, in truth, it was a moot point.  Because I can’t get blueberries in Cairo.  So, instead, I give you cardamom and cinnamon with dried apricots.  Which totally go.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups or 190g all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup or 150g dark brown sugar

1/4 cup or 50g sugar

6 tablespoons or 170g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1/2 cup or 120ml whole milk

1 large egg

7 1/2 oz or 215g dried apricots

Method

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F or 200°C.  Put liners in muffin cups or grease well with butter or non-stick spray.

Chop your dried apricots into little pieces.

Whisk together brown sugar, sugar, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom and salt in a large bowl.

See anything missing?

Whoops!  Almost forgot the white sugar!

Whisk together butter, milk, and egg in a bowl until combined well.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold to combine. 

Gently fold in your dried apricots.

Divide batter among muffin cups.

Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Guess who else loves a dried apricot, and apparently dried apricots baked into a muffin as well.

The exploratory sniff. 

He almost took my fingers off!

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street.   A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week.   Drop Anuradha a quick line to join her on this journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.

Garlic Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Pasta

It’s summer time and the tomatoes are easy!  Actually, the eggplants are here in abundance as well.  As you all know roasting vegetables concentrates their flavors and adds a hint of smokiness that enhances everything under the sun.  Here’s a simple dish that is tons tastier than the effort required to make it.  Because it is made from the ripest tomatoes and the sweetest baby eggplant brushed with garlic-infused olive oil and roasted until sticky and intense.  Just toss them with pasta to spread the love.

Ingredients

11 small eggplants

Sea salt
2-3 cloves garlic

1/4 cup or 60ml olive oil plus more for greasing the baking sheet

3 medium red ripe tomatoes

10 1/2 oz or 300g your pasta of choice (I used whole wheat penne.)

Parmesan for serving (optional)

Method

Preheat our oven to 400°F or 200°C and grease your baking sheet with olive oil. 

Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise and layer them in a colander.  Sprinkle each layer with salt and leave to drain.

Mince the garlic and pop it in a small pot with the 1/4 cup or 60ml olive oil.  Heat the oil gently and remove it from the stove as soon as the garlic starts to sizzle a little bit.  You do not want it to turn brown at all.

Slice the tomatoes into thick slices and cut the little core pieces out.  Lay the slices out your greased baking sheet.

Rinse the salt and the brown stuff off of the eggplants and line them up on the baking sheet with the tomatoes.

Brush the eggplants and tomato slices with the garlic infused olive oil.  Sprinkle everything with sea salt.

Pop the baking pan in the oven and roast for 20-30 minutes or until the edges of the vegetables are turning brown.  Turn them over and brush them again with more of the garlic olive oil.  

Return the baking pan to the oven for another 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook your pasta according to package instructions in some lightly salted water.  When the pasta is boiled, reserve a cup of the pasta water and drain the rest. 

Return the pasta to the hot pot and pour the remaining garlic olive oil into the pasta and stir.

When the vegetables are done, scrape the baking pan to remove the eggplants and tomato slices and any sticky stuff you can get off of the pan as well.

Add them to the pasta pot and stir thoroughly.  

If the pasta seems dry, add a little of the reserved pasta water. Serve with some grated Parmesan, if desired.

This dish is so rich and flavorful!

Enjoy!