Finnish Fishcakes

I love smoked salmon and that's always the first thing I want to make when I get away from the city to our summer cottage.
Did you know most families in Finland have a summer house out in the countryside? It's an extra house (usually built of wood) where Finns go to relax away from all the hustle and bustle of the city life. We spend most of the summer months in these cottages and enjoy life away from all the technology and just enjoying the beautiful surroundings of the nature (these days though most have a tv and and a mobile phone so technology still follows us everywhere we go).

A while ago I went to the summer cottage for the first time this year with my friends and of course we smoked our own fish. We have a smoke box where you just add a couple of handfuls of wood chips (we used cedar), 2 lumps of sugar and  a twig of juniper from our bushes. The salmon fillet is salted with rock salt. We then put our box into the Weber gas grill and once the smoke had formed we put the fish in. Our fish was 1,5kg and we smoked it on the grill for about 15 mins and then turned off the heat and let it sit in the box for another 10-15 mins. For the fish we had some false morels, new potatoes and grilled asparagus. It was heavenly and the salmon was just perfect.

Usually I like to smoke enough fish so we can enjoy it the next day as well. Here's a recipe I was inspired by the leftovers.

Spinach sauce
70g spinach (Nettles would be great too, but I forgot to pick some while out in the wilderness)
handful dill
1 1/2 dl cream/milk
pinch of salt

1)Sautee the spinach until soft in a saucepan
2)add the chopped dill
3)add the cream and salt
4)pour into a blender and mix until it's a smooth sauce or soup

Fish Cakes
250g Smoked Salmon (if you don't have home smoked salmon, warm smoked salmon from the shop will do just as well)
4 boiled new potatoes (approx. 160g)
1 egg
7g dill
Turkish yoghurt (10%) you can replace with creme fraiche
salt
pepper
10g chives
panko/ breadcrumbs

1)If you don't have leftover boiled potatoes from the day before you can just boil some
2)dice the potatoes
3)boil the eggs approximately 8 mins (hard boiled)
4)dice the eggs
5)shred the fish
6)combine fish, potatoes, eggs, dill, chives, salt and pepper
7)add enough yoghurt to make the potatoes and fish stick together so you can form patties. The yoghurt can be replaced with any creamy texture, creme fraiche or even mayo
8)cover with bread crumbs or panko crumbs (available at asian stores)

I prefer panko crumbs because the end result will be more crunchy, but this time I only had normal breadcrumbs in my pantry.

9)Fry the fish cakes in a frying pan with a bit of oil and butter.

By the way, in this recipe the amounts are not that important, just use what you have :)

Putting it all together on the plate

Pour the spinach soup on the bottom of the plate or bowl. Place the fish cake on top. Garnish with a bit of yoghurt and a sprig of dill.

Enjoy the taste of Finnish Summer!