Cooking for Alan – Dinner #9 Walleye and Lobster Cakes
Since my part-time work requires travel, usually lasting one week at a time, I’ve been trying to create a special “Cooking for Alan” dinner on the weeks that I’m home. This week I was able to tackle another dinner that included three new recipes. I’m delighted to report that I’ve now prepared 44 of Ina Garten’s recipes from her Cooking for Jeffrey book!
Menu
Artichokes with Lemon-Thyme Aioli
Anna’s Tomato Tart
Walleye and Lobster Cakes
As usual, I took several liberties with parts of the recipes in terms of ingredients. So as you scroll through the photos and captions I’ll be sure and point out the differences from Ina Garten’s original and Belinda’s adaptation. Simply click on the highlighted links to find Ina’s original version. I plan to feature each one of the recipes from the menu above in 3 separate blog posts. So stay tuned for the others to come out within a few days.
Since both of us are fond of fish and my husband is an avid fisherman, tonight I decided to treat Alan to one of Ina’s fish recipes. I used some freshly caught walleye that Alan brought home from a recent trip to Clear Lake in northern Iowa. Ina’s recipe calls for the mild, white fish, Cod. I found our fresh walleye to be the perfect substitute. Combining equal parts of walleye and Lobster was just the thing to make these fish cakes amazingly special.
Walleye and Lobster Cakes
These cakes ended up with a crispy exterior (thanks to Panko bread crumbs) and a center that was bursting with loads of deliciously tender walleye and lobster.
Everyone who enjoys cooking needs to invest in a pair of kitchen shears. I’ve found that using them is the easiest way to remove the uncooked Lobster meat from the tail. Just snip down the center of the back and underside of the tail and out pops the meat.
The recipe has you saute some vegetables in butter and then you add the fish fillets to the top of the mix, followed by pouring in some cream. Slowly simmer (covered) just until the fish is cooked. Then flake the fish right in the pan and add it everything from the pan to your herb, lobster and crumb mixture (pictured below).
Big bowl filled with the herb, egg, crumb and lobster mixture…just waiting for me to add the fish that I’ve poached in cream and aromatic vegetables. Stir GENTLY.
Ina’s recipe doesn’t tell you to let the fish cake mixture cool down for more than 10 minutes. When I first tried to form the patties, all they did was fall apart because the fish and cream was still quite warm. I let the mixture cool for several more minutes, which made it much easier to handle. It is important to work the mixture very gently as it’s mostly fish and lobster, with very little binding ingredients…which makes it so delicious in the end…but difficult as you form the patties. Right before I pan fried them in a little butter and oil, I dredged them in a bit more panko bread crumbs (not shown in the picture above).
TIPS…
- Once you add the cooked fish mixture to the crumb mixture…stir GENTLY and let cool for at least 20 minutes before attempting to form in to patties. You could speed up the process by chilling in the fridge or freezer.
- If you’re going to take the time to make this recipe…you may as well make an entire batch. We had lots of leftovers and were able to enjoy them for another meal or two.
- Take a few minutes (5) to make the recommended homemade Remoulade Sauce. Instead of using minced cornichons I substituted capers which gave it that salty, briny punch.
- If you like spice, consider adding a cajun hot sauce to your Remoulade.
WOULD I MAKE IT AGAIN? YES, YES, YES…might try to use fresh crab when I can get it.
