fish patties & apology

week ago friday i drove to my brother's with the intention to bake (a lot) for little niece's birthday, felt a little chilly when getting into bed friday night. saturday i had the house all to myself as my brother and nephew went to help my dad at the cottage and my sister in law took the nieces to an orienteering event in tampere. here is all i have to show for...







i baked pulla (coconut and cinnamon fillings), dorie greenspan's party cake in wilton dancing daisies pan, martha's coconut macaroons and made marchmallow's (a first!) with a recipe from delicious. i was having a flow so i forgot to take pics while preparing everything.

i had the intention of making buttercream frosting in pink and pale green to decorate the cake, etc, when, on saturday afternoon, i started feeling little woozy and had to lie down. first, on the sofa and later in bed with a bucket beside me, i will spare you the details. i ended up staying in bed for 3 days, fever and all. sister in law and older niece were left to make do with what i had started and some more to bake...i'm sorry i missed yet another little niece's birthday, and i was so close to making it this year! and you missed a grand post with my latest baking accomplishments, so sorry about that, too.

i stayed at mom and dad's apartment while sick and on tuesday afternoon, after carefully considering whether a 2½ hour drive could be accomplished, i drove home. i ended up staying horizontal most of wednesday, my stomach wasn't quite settled yet.

but eventually one needs to eat something...dad had caught some small pikes and knew that certain someone and i would appriciate them. there is one kilo of pike filees in there...certain someone got one fried in butter but the rest went into fish patties...







i made fish patties for first time a year ago, almost to a date. i used more or less the same recipe (who am i kidding? there was no recipe...), i did browse thru some recipes for inspiration, like one from maku magazine.







i ended up using:

1 kg pike filees
3 dl cream
2 eggs, separated, whites whipped
4 pieces of rye crisp bread, minced
1 dl bread crumbs (white bread)
10 cm piece of white part of leek, minced
salt, pepper, chili powder, peel of one lemon, fresh parsley and dill minced

first mixed together all of the dry ingredients.







then minced the pike filees in the food processor. (let the machine run long enough, you don't want tiny fish bones in your patties!) then, the machine running added the cream (mixed with the dry ingredients), leeks and yolks, mixed well. at this point i felt the machine might be getting over its capasity (a slight odor...), i mixed the whipped egg whites in a large bowl.







then shaped the batter into patties with wet hands, rolled the patties in rye breadcumbs and fried in butter on medium for 4 minutes per side.







perfectly done







served it simply with boiled jacket potatoes, butter and lemon juice