One of the most useful foods, as you know, is fish. It is fried, baked in the oven, cooked the first dishes from it and make various light snacks for the festive table. Pike perch cutlets are especially fond and popular with housewives. This is an excellent diet dish that can be cooked both in steam and in oil (if you do not count kilocalories).
Fish cakes can be prepared with and without vegetables, with cereals and from several types of fish. Today we have selected for you the most convenient ingredients in terms of purchasing, the simplest in terms of cooking and the most delicious recipes with photos of pike perch cutlets. To make the dish no worse than that of professional chefs, you should know a few simple rules.
The right fish choice
It is very important that only quality and fresh fish from a trusted manufacturer is selected for the minced meat. It is better to give preference to large pieces that better preserve the juiciness of fillets.
Fresh zander can be found for sale only in the summer. In winter, finding fresh fish on the shelves of a supermarket is very difficult, so you have to be content with frozen or chilled carcasses. We look at the date of manufacture, the terms and conditions of storage. We note all the shortcomings of the carcass, which can be determined at first glance and put aside non-liked specimens aside. We take only high-quality fish.
How to prepare fish
Of course, in order to save valuable time, you can buy ready-made minced meat, but experienced housewives advise you to choose a carcass and cook the minced meat yourself. Firstly, this is a significant savings in finance. Secondly, you will definitely know what is in your minced fish and from which, in fact, the dish will be prepared.
So, after acquiring the fish, you need to wash and get rid of the fins, head and tail. We clean the scales and remove the insides, making a neat cut of the carcass in the center of the abdomen. Wash the carcass again and divide it into portions. Remove skin from each piece and remove too large bones. For most recipes of pike perch cutlets, it is necessary to make a uniform and very finely chopped minced meat, so we advise you to skip the fish through a meat grinder a couple of times. This will not only make the mincemeat more tender and juicy, but it will also relieve it even of small seeds.
What to add to minced fish
Like meat, minced fish for cutlets needs to be supplemented with some ingredients that will give additional hitch, aroma, viscosity, softness, juiciness, etc. What foods are preferable to add to the minced meat, from which pike perch cutlets will later be prepared?
The first is potatoes. It is rubbed on a fine grater and added in small quantities. It will give a viscous consistency to the minced meat and will not allow the mass to fall apart when frying.
Secondly, it is cream, preferably homemade and fatty. They will make the mass more supple and tender.
Thirdly, it can be various cereals: semolina, buckwheat, oatmeal, etc.
As for spices, the choice here is huge: garlic, fresh herbs, ground pepper, curry, paprika, coriander, chopped bay leaf, lemon juice. Also, many housewives often use special sets of spices and seasonings for fish dishes.
Since minced fish is much thinner than meat, flour or bread crumbs are used to maintain shape. You can add black rye bread, as well as bran with aromatic dried herbs.
Homemade patties from pike perch. Step by step recipe with photo
This option is suitable for those who like a hearty and tasty meal, who do not count calories and want to enjoy delicious ruddy cutlets. For cooking, you can take pike perch fillet or, using our tips, cut the carcass yourself.
To prepare you will need:
- 680 g of zander;
- one onion;
- 260 g of cabbage;
- 160 g of white bread;
- 120 g salted pork lard;
- sour cream;
- salt;
- pepper.
Features of cooking
Cooking minced fish. In water, we soften a slice of white bread, squeeze it a little after a couple of minutes and add to the minced meat, without scrolling. Onions (you can also take a couple of cloves of garlic), cabbage and lard, on the contrary, are sent to a meat grinder and chopped. Mix all the ingredients. Add the egg, a little sour cream or homemade mayonnaise. Now the minced meat for the pike perch is slightly salted and add a pinch of ground black pepper.
We form cutlets. It remains only to heat the oil in a pan with a thick bottom, put the patties there and fry them on both sides until an appetizing blush forms.
Steamed mushroom patties from pike perch
After hearty homemade meatballs, I want to offer a recipe for those who prefer dietary, but no less tasty and healthy food. It will be fragrant mushroom patties. For cooking, it is recommended to take a ready-made fillet of pikeperch, as well as champignons (mushrooms, which are among the most low-calorie).
What products to take:
- 420 g of pike perch (fillet);
- lemon juice (from 1 lemon);
- 140 g of champignons;
- egg;
- ground pepper;
- Bay leaf;
- seasoning for fish.
Description of the cooking process
We cut the fish fillet into portions. If you look at the photo of pike perch cutlets, you can see that the minced meat is everywhere of a uniform and very fine consistency. To achieve this result, it is necessary to skip the meat through a meat grinder three or even four times. The more, the softer and juicier the stuffing will be. Add to it an egg, lemon juice, as well as seasonings and spices. Pre-grind bay leaf in a mortar along with peppercorns.
Now about the mushrooms. If you want the taste of mushrooms to clearly appear through the homogeneous fish mass, then the mushrooms can simply be chopped very finely and added to the minced fish in this form. If you want tenderness in taste, then chop the mushrooms together with pieces of fish fillet at the first stage.
We form medium-sized balls, squeeze them a little with the palm of our hand, and we get flat, but magnificent fish patties from pike perch with mushrooms. Now put them on the grate of a double boiler so that they do not touch each other. Cooking time will depend on the type of kitchen unit. As a rule, fish cutlets are enough for 15-20 minutes.
Creamy fish sauce
Serve minced fish cutlets with various side dishes. But a combination of tender fish fillet, cooked in the oven or steamed, and creamy sauce is considered especially tasty. It is prepared with the addition of a large number of aromatic spices and herbs.
Required:
- 20 g parsley;
- 3 cloves of garlic;
- 10 g of sugar;
- 18 g of olive oil;
- half a teaspoon of thyme;
- 55 ml of dry white wine;
- 50 g of soy sauce (we will not add salt);
- 380 ml fat cream;
- 120 ml of fish broth.
The sauce is prepared very quickly and simply, despite the significant amount of ingredients. First, you need to heat the olive oil in a pan and fry greens, thyme, garlic and a little shallot on it. Then pour in the indicated amount of wine, evaporate it and at the last stage add cream and soy sauce. We bring to the desired density, turn off the fire.
Interesting Facts
- In order for the process of assimilation of calcium, phosphorus and potassium to occur correctly and quickly in the body, it is necessary to eat fish.
- To preserve all the nutrients, the minced meat should not be chopped in a meat grinder, but chopped. Of course, the matter is long and troublesome, but the benefits are an order of magnitude greater and the taste is richer.
- If it takes more than five hours to absorb meat protein, then two are enough for our body to absorb protein from fish.