Fish Cakes in Tomato Sauce

Fish cakes in tomato sauce…. so good! This is a fairly quick recipe if you use frozen fish burgers…

The recipe calls for making fish cakes from scratch using fresh fish. I happened to have some frozen fish burgers that I picked up at Costco.. Pollack fish burgers & decided to use these instead of making the fish cakes myself. Certainly you can make your own fish cakes… I won’t put the recipe for them here because I did not make them so I am not sure how they are…but the sauce is fantastic. I actually used this sauce for meatballs….& it would be great with zucchini noodles… the sauce recipe is a keeper!

Here is the recipe from JERUSALEM A COOKBOOK PAGE 225

This is how I made the recipe…

Ingredients

Tomato Sauce

2 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

1 tsp ground coriander

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 cup water *** the original recipe calls for white wine here, I did not have any so I used water

1 400 g can diced tomatoes

1 tsp dried red pepper flakes…amount is up to you… use as much as you like…how spicy you like things

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tsp superfine sugar…. *** if you do not have superfine sugar, use regular granulated sugar

1/2 tsp salt & pepper

another cup of water…

approx 2 tbsp mint leaves, chopped *** I used dried mint

 

Fish

4 – 8  frozen fish burgers…. I used the ones from Costco. & I used 4

 

Method 

You will need a saute/frying pan that has a lid & sides & can hold the fish cakes rather snuggly …

Make the sauce first then when it is simmering you will make the fish…if you have 2 pans, but… if you only have one medium size frying pan, make the fish first, then set the cooked fish aside, make the sauce & then you can add the cooked fish cakes into the sauce to finish cooking *** please note that you have to cook the fish according to the package instructions & make sure they are throughly cooked

1. Heat the olive oil in the pan
2. Add the spices & chopped onion & cook until the onion is tender & starting to brown
3. Add the water ( or wine if you are using )  to the cooked onions & mix well… simmer this for about 5 minutes
4. Add the tomatoes, red pepper flakes, garlic, sugar, salt & pepper
5. Mix well & simmer until this gets quite thick, approx 10 -15 min
6. While the sauce is simmering, cook the fish cakes *** unless you cooked them first!
7. In a separate frying pan, in some heated oil, cook the fish cakes according to the package instructions…you want the fish cakes to be nice & brown…
8. When the fish cakes are cooked & the sauce has cooked down, add the fish cakes to the tomato sauce ..they can be close together.. nestle them in the sauce./..
9. Now, add some water to just cover the fish cakes
10. Put the lid on & simmer on a low heat for 15 – 20 minutes

Serve  warm or at room temperature garnish with the mint

Enjoy!