On Practicing a Reverse Lent: Herring Fish Cakes

After a long Easter weekend wherein the rowdy but immensely beloved Brussels crowd hopped the Eurostar to London to help me celebrate turning thirty, it’s time for a return to sanity–financially, nutritionally, alcoholically.  It’s the Tuesday after Easter, and Mr. B and are I are commencing an observation of Lent on the wrong side of the feast.  It’s to save our waistlines, our bank accounts and livers, if not our souls.

But it doesn’t mean the fun stops:  I’m experimenting with dried smoked herring after a day spent testing out the roller skates Mr. B got me for my birthday.

Herring seems like a logical choice.  A cheap and traditional staple of European Lent for centuries.  But I did not make my choice logically.  Rather, serendipity brought me to these fish cakes.

I bought the herring from our local Jamaican grocer in preparation for a lazy Good Friday breakfast, and cut into the fish expecting a tender treat.  Instead, the knife barely penetrated the pungent, extremely salty, rubbery flesh.  Mr. B took a turn sawing at it before we abandoned the fish in favor of cheese.

I should have known better.  Fish does not come this cheap (about £1 per fish) if you don’t have to work to make it palatable.  But the good thing about dried, smoked herring is that it’s made for storing.  There was no pressure to cook or eat it quickly.  It is so well preserved that it doesn’t even need refrigeration.  To render it palatable, though, it requires at least 24 hours of soaking, with several changes of water.  I did this, and then decided to make fish cakes.  This is how:

Herring Fish Cakes

Soak

2 dried smoked herring

in water for a minimum of 24 hours, changing the water and rinsing the fish a minimum of three times.

Once soaked, remove the skin from the flesh and the flesh from the bones.  Also remove the liver (the roe?  Whatever this:

is!  It is even fishier than the fish.  Inedible, unless you are a really brave old salt.)  You will probably not be able to remove all the bones.  That’s okay.  The result of your labors will look something like this:

Place the flesh into a fine sieve, and the sieve over a bowl, and rub the flesh against the sieve with a wooden spoon.  Some of the bones will go through the sieve into the bowl.  The rest of them will disintegrate into the flesh.  The resulting mush will look extremely unappetizing, sort of like discount cat food.  But don’t give up!

Season the flesh with plenty of pepper and a a good squeeze of lemon BUT NO SALT!!! and mash it together with

four medium potatoes

that you have peeled and either baked or microwaved until tender.  To this mixture add

a generous handful of chopped parsley

and

two medium eggs

(I used one duck egg that I forgot to dye for Easter.  This is about equal to two medium or small chicken eggs.  One large chicken egg should also do the trick.)

You should now have an easily malleable mass that looks something like this:

Using your hands, form it into six patties, roll the patties in

breadcrumbs

(these can be easily made by whizzing stale or toasted bread in a blender) and sautée them in a lightly oiled skillet over medium heat until they have formed a dark golden crust on each side.  Serve with a lightly dressed salad, remoulade (mayonnaise mixed with chopped pickles, capers and lemon juice is an easy and reasonable substitute) and water to drink, if you are also observing reverse Lent, and being abstinent.

The finished product.

Tags: Abstinence, Easter, Fish Cakes, Herring