In most countries where fish is a staple food, some variety of fish cake or fish patty is also on the nation’s plate. They can be crispy on the outside and soft in the inside; crusted in breadcrumbs or corn meal; served warm or served cold. In some countries, fish cakes are more like fish patties; made from mostly fish, no flour, herbs + seasonings and perhaps an egg or two to help bind the mixture. As fish is a staple food here, Norway is no different. Norwegian fish cakes are very similar to that recipe, with the exception that they include potato flour, milk and baking powder.
Recently, INN, a division of the Stavanger Chamber of Commerce, hosted it’s first of a series of events focused on the Norwegian kitchen and local ingredients. The first event highlighted Norwegian fish cakes-
Norwegian Fish Cakes
500 grams fish filet (fish caught the same day is best; firm white fish like cod is traditional but use what you have/like)
30 grams potato starch
15 grams sea salt (this seems like a lot but it isn’t)
2 dl. milk
1 egg
1 ss. baking powder
Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until mixture becomes smooth and consistent. Some fish chunks can remain but mixture should be relatively smooth in texture. Wet hands with water, shape fish cake dough into patties and fry in a 50/50 mixture of butter and oil. Serve warm.
The finished product. Photo by Kirill Timakov.
We began with a whole fresh fish and a very sharp boning knife. Making a fish filet isn’t as hard as I previously thought but make sure your knife is very sharp.
Once you’ve taken the sides of the fish off the spine, start at the tail and work your way through the body of the fish to take the skin off.
Onions sauteed in butter and Norwegian cranberries. The onions are eaten atop the fish cake and the cranberries for dessert.
Chopped garlic and sun-dried tomatoes plus chopped chives make good mix-ins to the fish cake batter for a change of pace from the basic recipe.
Add all the ingredients to the food processor and mix until smooth.
Place the dough into a bowl for handling.
When it is time to actually fry the fish cakes, wet your hands first, then form a portion of the dough into patties-similar to how you’d form homemade hamburgers.
Once you have formed the dough, place each patty into the hot oil to cook. Leave a bit of room between each patty to make flipping them over easier.
Each ‘cake’ is done cooking when the edges are firm, both sides are brown and the cake is firm to pressure, but not hard.
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I lived on fishcakes when I was in Norway. Never had one before or since that I liked. Going to try these tonight with Marlin steaks!
you can also make a fish pudding from this recipe, just place the finished product (add the nutmeg and onions)in a loaf pan and cook it in a water bath at 350 till a toothpic comes out clean. ser with a cream sauce made from the fish trimmings if possible. check out
wow !
Hi Ruth-
Yes, I have frozen them and they freeze well.
Whitney, do you think these would freeze well?
15 grams of salt is to much 7 would be about right and one tablespoon of chopped onions should be added also one teaspoon of nutmeg and 2 teaspoons of white pepper
Cool! Thanks!
“ss” is basically a teaspoon measure.
I need to criticise this recipe just a smidgen. Usually you’re spot on, but here there’s something wrong. If you’re making fish cakes, you want to have mostly haddock. At least 50%. (The fish in the image looks a lot like haddock to be honest.) The reason is that haddock is very, very good at becoming a farce. (Or is it called something else in English? The meaning is the stuff you get after you blend the meat/fish until the meat fibres are gone. Used for meat pudding for example, or in the Norwegian medisterkaker.)
Now, what you want to put in those other 50% is more or less up to you.
Another thing that you forgot to mention, that is very important, is temperature control. When you blend the fish, you have to make sure that it doesn’t get too warm. Otherwise the result will be suboptimal.
Wow. Fish pancakes. Who’d know?
What’s the measure on the baking powder, by the way? I’m not familiar with “ss” as a measurement.
ss = tablespoon, or 15ml.