On Sunday night – late, after midnight – I landed at Newark Airport after having woken up that morning on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua to the sounds of two howler monkeys engaged in a screaming match outside my thatched, open-air cabana. After 10 days traveling around that gorgeous country- from the colonial beauty of Granada, to the spectacular lakeside scenery of the islands in Lake Nicaragua, to the lush jungles of the Mambacho volcano foothills to the surf culture of the Pacific coast, I am happy to be able to take a shower with serious water pressure and get back into the kitchen. But I’m really going to miss Nicaragua.
Just about anywhere I travel, after a few days I think to myself that I could move right in and eat that country’s food every single day. Nicaragua was no different- when offered a menu, my choice was gallo pinto (rice and beans) every single time (in addition to some other local delicacies like vigaron – yucca, chicharrones and slaw – and tripe soup). It’s especially amusing to think that I could be happy eating the same dish everyday when my living room looks like a United Nations of cookbooks- I can’t explain it, but I think it has to do with how immersed I feel wherever I am.
But anyway- back to reality, these incredible fish cakes were a reality for me a few weeks before my trip. I’d long ago earmarked the recipe because I love crab cakes, and they looked like an unusual – but delicious – take. My initial assumption was not wrong. Whereas traditional crab cakes can be very rich and heavy, the addition of the sweet potato in the batter actually makes these a lot lighter and milder. You combine cooked sweet potato with crabmeat, an onion, breadcrumbs, some cilantro and some hot sauce, make a quick batter, and then continue onto the traditional breading routine: flour, eggs, breadcrumbs. Chill for an hour. Pan fry until golden. Dig in.
These fish cakes are not too fishy and simply delicious, with the addition of Middle Eastern herbs and spices, in particular, the cilantro and za’atar. It’s essential that you serve them with lemon wedges, which you should squeeze generously over the fish, and the entire thing should be set on a nice bed of arugula, which adds the perfect bitter bite to the sweetness and richness of the fish.
And now, after 10 days of gallo pinto and yucca, I’m hungry for fish cakes.
Ingredients
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- 7 oz. / 200g crabmeat
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
- Dash of Tabasco sauce
- 5-6 slices of white bread, crusts removed
- 2 tablespoons za'atar
- All-purpose flour for dusting
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 4 tablespoons vegetable or sunflower oil
- 1/2 small bunch of arugula
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges
- Sea salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Prick the sweet potatoes with a fork, put them in the oven and bake 45 minutes until tender. Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven, cut them in half and scoop out the flesh into the flesh into a bowl. Add the crabmeat, onion, cilantro and Tabasco sauce to taste and mix well. Season well with salt and pepper.
- Put the slices of bread into a food processor and process to fine crumbs. Add half the breadcrumbs to the crabmeat mixture and mix well. Tip the remaining breadcrumbs onto a plate, stir in the za'atar and season with salt and pepper. Spread out the flour on another plate.
- Make patties from the crab mixture that are a little smaller than the size of your palm. Dust the patties with flour, then dip into the beaten eggs and then coat in the spicy breadcrumbs. Put the fish cakes onto a baking sheet and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Heat the oil in a skillet or frying pan over medium heat, add the fish cakes, in batches, and cook for 5 minutes on each side until golden. Serve immediately with arugula, lemon wedges and a sprinkling of sea salt.
Notes
From The Lebanese Kitchen
