Blenderizing Fish

The first thing to note about Denmark, they are much like the rest of Northern Europe and they love their fish. Now we have a lot to thank Denmark for, one of the most important, the lego. Now I know it may seem inconsequential, but where would we be without the lego? There would be no Legoland and we would probably still be playing with Lincoln logs and erector sets. Okay, so maybe we would be doing okay, but when I recall my childhood the lego definitely plays a pretty big role, especially when it came to fighting over the cool helmet with my brothers. Okay, so maybe the world would actually be a better place without the lego causing squabbling only to end up buried somewhere in the yard. Now enough about toys, this is about cooking! Out of the hundreds of Danish recipes out there, some were a little out there. Lots involved pickling and strange ways to prepare fish. I went with a traditional one – the frikadeller.

Frikadeller refers to the Danish version of a meatball, however, along with the typical beef and pork, there’s that of the fish variety. Frikadeller are typically served with potatoes and red cabbage, but I went a non-traditional route and ate mine with leftover peas from the nauratan I made last week. Call me frugal and tired of trips to the grocery store. I can say one thing, before this recipe I had never ever had any reason to blenderize fish. In fact I had no desire to blenderize fish. Is blenderize even a verb? So it was with great sadness that I stuck a wonderfully flaky cod fillet in my blender and pushed “on.” I don’t think I have ever received such strange looks from the other girls in my dorm, which is saying a lot since I’ve cooked some strange things in the past. Once I explained that I was making a Danish recipe for the sake of a blogging contest, they at least gave me a brief “ooooh” before continuing to look on curiously.

I can’t blame them really. I mean I was curious too. After mixing all my ingredients together I had my very own fish paste. Or something like that which is quite repulsive in both looks and smell. The paste is supposed to be formed into “egg shapes” but mine came out a little more like flattened eggs, but that’s okay, I looked at some photos and they looked just like mine so I was reassured. Then I fried them (without setting off the smoke alarm!) and that was that. I was told they smelt good after having cooked them so that was a redeeming quality. All the other girls know I can cook so at least I don’t have to prove myself to be handy in the kitchen, even if the things I do cook result in strange looks.

Now aside from the blenderizing, this recipe was pretty decent. I’m still more of a fan of fish that actually flakes, whereas these little fish eggs lack that texture, but dipped in tartar sauce it was kind of like a denser version of fish and chips sans the chips and the breading. I’m not sure I’d go with this exact version again since I’m betting there are better ways to fry fish, but I did like the little addition of the curry powder. I suppose I’ll use this recipe for inspiration if I ever feel like mutilating a perfectly good fillet in the future.