Fish pat­ties can be made with any flaky white fish. I like tilapia because you can buy it in fil­lets with no skin or bones to remove and it is not very expen­sive. This recipe is very good served with the Roasted Corn Salad.

Serves 4

Ingre­di­ents

Fish Pat­ties:

• 3 cups fish poach­ing liq­uid (see Step 1)
• 1 lemon rind, reserve the juice
• 1 ½ pounds flaky white fish such as tilapia or sole, skin and bones removed
• 1 red bell pep­per, diced
• 4 scal­lions, white and green parts chopped
• 2 ounces capers, drained
• 3 eggs
• ¼ cup pars­ley, chopped
• 1 cup of bread crumbs (approximately)
• Sea­son To Taste with paprika, salt and pepper
• 1–2 cups veg­etable oil

Tar­tar Sauce:

• ½ cup mayonnaise
• 1 ounce capers, drained
• 2 tea­spoons pickle rel­ish, drained
• 1 tea­spoon Dijon mustard
• 1 lemon, juiced (approximately)
• Sea­son To Taste with paprika, salt and pepper

Direc­tions

1. There are var­i­ous ways to start a fish poach­ing liq­uid. I save shrimp shells from other projects and freeze them. Then bring the shrimp shells, lemon rind and 3 cups water to a boil. Sim­mer for 10 min­utes and strain out the solids. Bring the liq­uid back up to a sim­mer. If you have fish stock, veg­etable stock or clam juice on hand, they will enhance the fla­vor. After poach­ing the fish, strain out any remain­ing solids, cool the liq­uid and freeze in a con­tainer for future recipes. The liq­uid will get more intense in fla­vor with each use. Be sure to freeze the liq­uid between uses and bring to a full boil before reduc­ing to a sim­mer to elim­i­nate the pos­si­bil­ity of bacteria.
2. Bring the pre­pared poach­ing liq­uid to a sim­mer. Poach the fish until cooked through. Remove the fish from the liq­uid and squeeze out excess liq­uid. Break apart the fish with your fin­gers until it is in flakes.
3. Dice the red bell pep­per and put it in a large, microwave­able mix­ing bowl. Microwave for 2 min­utes or until soft­ened. Add the flaked fish, scal­lions, capers, eggs, and pars­ley to the bowl. Mix together and add just enough bread crumbs to hold the mix­ture together, so you can form a patty. Sea­son with lemon juice, paprika, salt and pepper.
4. Pour enough veg­etable oil into a large fry­ing pan for a quar­ter inch of depth. Heat the veg­etable oil until it shim­mers. Form the fish mix­ture into pat­ties that are about 3 inches in diam­e­ter. Fry in the hot oil until the bot­tom side is golden brown. Care­fully flip each patty over and fry until the other side is also golden.
5. To make the tar­tar sauce, mix all the ingre­di­ents together in a small bowl. Sea­son with lemon juice, paprika, salt and pepper.