Here is a step-by-step recipe with photos of the most delicious fish cakes. River fish - pike - is taken as the basis. Do not be surprised: the fillet of this fish can be very tender if cooked correctly. Pike is a very bony fish, so just frying it in a pan or baking it in the oven will not work, then you are tormented to get the bones. But the bones are small (except for the ridge) and are perfectly ground in a meat grinder. And thanks to the dense and durable skin of the fish, you can cook a great holiday dish - stuffed pike in the oven. They stuff it with the same ground pike minced meat. But today we will talk about a more everyday homemade dish, which, by the way, can also be prepared from other bony and dry fish (perch, hake, etc.) - these are pike fish cakes. They are prepared quite simply and quickly, the main thing is to have a good meat grinder on hand.
How to cook pike cutlets so that they are not dry and hard, but soft, very tender, melting in your mouth? I will share with you culinary subtleties. First, we will add a little lard to the minced meat. In some recipes, a little butter or heavy cream is added to the minced meat. Any of these components will make cutlets juicy and soft, but with lard it will be more nutritious. In addition, please note that the addition of liquid components should be accompanied by an additional introduction of a thickener - rice or flour. The second secret is processed cheese, it gives the cutlets a very soft, pleasant creamy taste and cheesy aroma, which perfectly emphasizes the taste of pike. The third secret is breading. She keeps the juice inside the cutlets. The recipe for pike cutlets, which I want to offer, has a minimum of ingredients. No additional aromatic components and seasonings are required so as not to interrupt and properly reveal the taste of fish. But if you want, just a little - a little bit of spices can be added. Coriander, thyme, oregano are suitable for river fish like pike. So, the recipe for juicy pike cutlets step by step, with subtleties and tricks.
To prepare cutlets you will need:
- 1.5 pike (peeled 1 kg);
- 1 processed cheese (100 g);
- 200 g of lard;
- 250 g of onion;
- 2 eggs;
- 3-4 cloves of garlic;
- a little dill;
- salt, pepper to taste;
- flour for dusting;
- vegetable oil for frying.
A simple recipe for fish cakes from pike (minced meat)
1. Defrost pike or take fresh. Keep in mind that the fish is stored for a short time, cook it on the same day after defrosting and butchering, preferably immediately. We wash the carcass, dry it with paper towels. Cutting fish is the first and most difficult step in our step-by-step recipe. Remove the pelvic fins and head. Then we make an incision along the carcass, remove the insides and the ridge. Use a sharp knife to cut as little fillet as possible along with the bones. Leave the rest of the bones and skin. These parts do not interfere, and it is rather troublesome to remove them. You can take frozen minced fish, just let it thaw before cooking. This is necessary for good mixing of the ingredients.
By the way, many do not like pike because of its dryness, but it is a useful dietary product. The calorie content of fish per 100 g is 84 calories, there is less than 1 gram of fat in it, there are no carbohydrates at all. However, there is a lot of protein, vitamins A, B1, B2, B9, C, E, iodine and iron. Pike fillet stimulates the immune and nervous system, helps to cope with harmful microorganisms. Regular use of this product normalizes body weight, eliminates beriberi (especially vitamin B deficiency), reduces the risk of diabetes, and heals the liver.
2. We coped with the fish, then everything will be easier and more interesting. Cut the onion so that it is convenient to lay it in the meat grinder. We clean the garlic cloves. You can take a red salad onion - also delicious. If you don't like garlic, don't use it. Some people add a small piece (about the size of a marigold) of fresh ginger to the minced meat - it gives the cutlets a piquancy. In the East, ginger is often added to fish dishes, but in this case it is not for everyone.
3. Cut the lard into small pieces so that it is also convenient to immerse it in a meat grinder.
4. Pass the fat through a meat grinder.
5. Next we skip the pike. Why is it worth using a meat grinder, and not a blender? Meat grinder knives grind the bones better, besides, the minced meat turns out to be more dense and uniform. Therefore, such pike fish cakes will be the softest and most tender. And the blender will turn the ingredients into a watery puree, from which it will then be difficult to form beautiful cutlets.
6. Skip the minced meat one or two more to chop the remaining bones.
7. Add onions, garlic and processed cheese. Dill is also passed through a meat grinder. Onions and herbs can be finely chopped with a knife if you want them to be clearly felt in the cutlets and the tastes do not mix. But scrolling through a meat grinder is much more convenient and faster. Particles of greens are evenly distributed throughout the minced meat, it looks beautiful.
8. Add eggs, salt, pepper to the bowl. Mix everything for 5-7 minutes until smooth, you can use your hands. Tip: beat off the minced meat a little, such cutlets will turn out even juicier. To beat the minced meat, drop it several times into the bowl from a low height. Another trick: cover the mixture with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15-20 minutes. The fish is better saturated with salt and spices.
9. During the time I was frying the first batch of cutlets, some more juice came out (cutlets from the first batch in the first photo). You can clean it up with flour, 2-3 tbsp. will not be redundant. In addition, the minced meat can turn out to be watery if the juicy onion is chopped in a meat grinder or grated. The main thing is that cutlets are well molded from minced meat. But you can’t overdo it with flour either, otherwise you can ruin the taste of the dish. Looking ahead, I will say that both options turned out to be very tasty.
10. Roll up cutlets with wet hands. Before each new portion of minced meat, rinse your hands so that it is convenient to form (so the minced meat does not stick to your hands).
11. Put the cutlets in flour.
12. Roll in flour. This is our breading, which will not let the juice flow out. Pike cutlets must be rolled, otherwise they turn out dry. More breading options are crackers, bran with additives. By the way, flour is well replaced with breadcrumbs and as part of liquid minced meat.
13. Shake off excess flour.
14. Put the cutlets in hot oil and fry over medium heat until a crust forms. Pike cutlets, which were rolled in breadcrumbs, have a darker and crispier crust than flour cutlets. Therefore, for the most tender cutlets, take flour. In this breading, the fish turns out juicier and softer.
15. Turn over and fry again. The frying process takes 15-20 minutes depending on the thickness of the cutlets. If you want to reduce the calorie content of the dish, do this: fry the cutlets over high heat until golden brown for 7-8 minutes, then pour in a little water, reduce the heat and simmer. You can bring the cutlets to readiness in the oven.
16. When everything is fried (or baked), put it on a plate covered with paper towels or napkins to remove excess oil. What to serve with fish cakes? Pike is combined with potatoes, steamed vegetables, boiled rice. Popular additives to pike are sour cream, cream, tomato sauces, as well as mayonnaise. Before serving, decorate the homemade fish dish with fresh herbs.
Tender, melt-in-your-mouth pike cutlets are ready. I hope the recipe with the photo was useful to you and you got the most delicious fish cakes. Bon appetit!
