thebigfatnoodle

Friday is for fish: red and white quinoa fish cakes

Standard · Posted by thebigfatnoodle on September 30, 2011 · 9 Comments 

Red and white quinoa - love those little curlicues!

Friday is for fish: red and white quinoa fish cakes (made with tilapia fillets)

I only discovered quinoa a few months ago in a salad but it was definitely love at first bite again.

Ever since that time, I’ve been wracking my brain to come up with a recipe with quinoa but I didn’t want it to be salad based.

I found a quinoa patty recipe on epicurous and I immediately thought of adding fish (and other ingredients) to it to turn it into one of my favourite dishes, fish cakes!

Chillies, quinoa, spring onions, lemon, salt and pepper

I love fish cakes but I’ve never really liked the stodginess of potato. Quinoa just seemed like a perfect alternative.

As this is the first time I made this, I really didn’t know how well it would turn out but these fishcakes are simply divine!

All of the ingredients are mixed well before the egg and breadcrumbs are added

The quinoa is a great foil for all the flavours, which it sucks up, and tilapia (one of my favourite fish) is perfect – it’s quite a firm fish but by poaching it in milk first, it brings out a softness and creaminess in tilapia that I’ve never tasted before.

These fish cakes are also only shallow fried in a tiny bit of oil so are a much healthier way of making fishcakes.

Makes a good 18 - 20 fishcakes

Served with a simple parsley salad and tartare sauce

I served my quinoa fishcakes with a dollop of tartare sauce and with a simple parsley salad with toasted pine nuts. I know most people use parsley as a herb or garnish but I love the leaves in a salad. I just drizzle the parsley leaves with extra virgin olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice and a generous twist of ground black pepper. Bliss!

It's a bit of sticky, wet mess - try not to eat too much of it before you make the fish cakes 🙂

Ingredients (Makes 18-20 small fishcakes)

250 grams cooked red and white quinoa

3 tilapia fillets (about 300 grams)

1 bay leaf

1 cup milk

A golf ball sized cake of deliciousness!

5 spring onions, finely chopped

Juice of ½ lemon

1 red chilli, de-seeded and finely choppe

20 grams grated parmesan

30 grams comte or gruyere

1 cup breadcrumbs

3 large beaten eggs

1 tablespoon salt

Peel of 1 unwaxed lemon, finely chopped

1 large clove garlic, minced/pounded

A generous few grinds of black pepper

Sizzle on each side for a couple of minutes

In a saucepan, poach the tilapia fillets in the milk with 1 bay leaf and ½ teaspoon of sea salt. Use a slotted spoon to lift out the fish and with a fork, break up the fish and allow it to cool. Discard the milk and bay leaf.

In a large mixing bowl, mix all the rest of your ingredients (including your cooled fish) but leave the beaten eggs and breadcrumbs till last. Add the beaten eggs and then add the breadcrumbs, mix well and let this sit for a few minutes so that the breadcrumbs can absorb some of the egg and mixture.

A healthier fish cake because it's not deep fried

Red and white quinoa fish cakes with tilapia

You’ll have quite a wet/moist stuffing mixture but that’s normal.

To make the fish cakes, roll about a golf ball sized spoonful of mixture and gently fresh it into shape.

In a fry pan, drizzle a small amount of olive oil and fry each fish cake for just a couple of minutes each side until they’re brown and crispy. Enjoy!

Red and white quinoa fish cakes with tilapia, parsley salad and tartare sauce

Best fish cakes I've had in a while!

Have a fabulous weekend.

Lots of love

thebigfatnoodle