Fish Cakes With Herbed Sauce (German) - cooking recipe

Ingredients

FOR FISH CAKES
2 potatoes (peeled)
1 onion (divided per Prep Step #1)
9 ounces white fish fillets (skinned & bones removed)
9 ounces smoked fish fillets (skinned & bones removed, may use shrimp as I did & see Note below)
flour (sml amt for dusting)
canola oil (for shallow frying)
salt & freshly ground black pepper
FOR HERBED SAUCE
2 ounces mixed herbs (See note Re Herb Mix)
4 tablespoons Quark (or sub cream cheese)
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons mustard (sweet variety)
1 teaspoon lemon juice (or 4-6 drops Tobasco)
2 eggs (hard-boiled & roughly chopped)

Preparation

Coarsely grate potatoes & squeeze out all excess moisture. Coarsely grate onion. Add half the onion to the potatoes & reserve the other half for the sauce.
Chop fish fillets roughly, place in a food proc w/some freshly ground black pepper & whizz to a smooth paste.
Combine fish paste w/the potato/onion mixture & add salt as desired, remembering the smoked fish provides a salt component. Shape mixture into 8 rd cakes & set aside.
Wash out the food proc & make the sauce by blending your chosen herbs till finely chopped (See note below Re Herb Mix).
Add remaining sauce ingredients + reserved grated onion & pulse to a slightly chunky puree - not smooth as it should have some texture. Taste sauce, add salt & pepper as desired, transfer to a bowl & set aside.
Dust fish cakes lightly w/flour. Heat oil to a depth of 1/2-inch & fry cakes (in 2 batches as needed) for about 3 min on ea side over med-heat. Drain on paper towels & reheat oil to cook 2nd batch. Serve fish cakes w/sauce & a fresh tomato salad.
RE HERB MIX: (Quoted from recipe) \"Choose from parsley, chives, chervil, dill, marjoram, sorrel, coriander, basil, tarragon, borage, lovage, rocket or baby spinach. Use the more pungent herbs sparingly.\".
NOTE (Added 4/3/08) ~ When I made this dish, I unexpectedly found myself w/o smoked fish to use -- so I subbed Icelandic baby shrimp & it worked very well. If you make the recipe using this sub, I advise adding 1 tsp (or more as desired) of Old Bay Seasoning to the fish cake mixture.