Make Ahead

New England Potato Cod Fishcakes

by:
October  4, 2022
4.5
2 Ratings
  • Makes 10
Author Notes

My second experiment this week was to freeze a fresh cod fillet to see if it would work with a traditional potato latke-styled recipe...and it did! I cooked these in peanut oil and I think they came out really well. The ratio of cod to potato I used was 1:2; I did not experiment further to see what the results would be playing with those proportions. I did experiment with panko vs flour, and decided I preferred the results with flour. —Sagegreen

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • peanut or olive oil for frying
  • 1/3-1/2 pounds fresh cod fillet, folded and frozen
  • 2 russet or Yukon gold potatoes (to yield @1 cup grated)
  • 1 medium yellow onion (to yield @ 1/2 cup)
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
  • 1-2 tablespoons lemon zest, to your taste
  • 1 tablespoon grated horseradish root
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
  • 2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 2 ounces flour
  • 4 ounces sour cream
  • 4 ounces mayonnaise
  • 1 teaspoon grated horseradish root, or prepared horseradish
  • 1 ounce capers
  • sprigs of fresh dill for garnish
Directions
  1. After the cod fillet has been frozen, grate it using the large holes of a box grater. By folding it first before freezing, you can get a better grip then for grating. You can guard your hands from the frozen fish by wrapping the top of the fillet with paper towels.
  2. Grate the potatoes with the skins on or off. I like to leave the skins on. Next grate the onions. Combine with the grated fish. Add 1 tbl. horseradish as well as the salt, pepper, and lemon zest.
  3. Squeeze as much liquid from this mix as you can using a colander, cheesecloth or your bare hands. In a bowl mix the wrung out mess with half of the chopped herbs, the egg and flour. From this mix form about 10 fish cakes. These will be about 4 inches or so wide and at least 1/4 inch thick. Feel free to vary the size to your needs. For a light appetizer these can be made smaller.
  4. To make a tartar sauce, blend the other half of the chopped herbs with the capers, 1 tsp.horseradish, mayo and sour cream. Chill until serving. You may have some leftover, or not.
  5. Heat a heavy gauge frying pan with a generous coating of oil. When sizzling add half of the latkes/fishcakes. Press down gently on each one. When golden brown on the bottom , flip over. Press down gently and cook until golden brown all around. Make sure these are cooked in the middle before draining on paper towels. Cook the second batch the same way. Be sure to add more oil first, if needed.
  6. Plate the warm fish cakes or latkes with the tartar sauce and fresh sprigs of dill.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Burf
    Burf
  • Oui, Chef
    Oui, Chef
  • boulangere
    boulangere
  • drbabs
    drbabs
  • Sagegreen
    Sagegreen

9 Reviews

Burf March 24, 2014
i'm a little late to the game on this, but these were great!! Thanks!!
 
Oui, C. March 30, 2011
Oooh...don't these sound lovely.
 
Sagegreen March 31, 2011
Thank you, Steve!
 
boulangere March 25, 2011
Mmmmmmmm! Wonderful idea!
 
Sagegreen March 25, 2011
Thank you, boulangere!
 
drbabs November 25, 2010
Fish cake meets latke...yum!
 
Sagegreen November 26, 2010
Great summary! Thanks.
 
lapadia March 29, 2011
I second drbabs comment...yum!
 
Sagegreen March 29, 2011
Thanks, lapadia!