Fish pancakes!

The other day K ate two things that he has consistently refused to touch for the past two years: fish and potatoes! I planned to make cod cakes, but I'm not a big recipe-follower and the batter turned into a mess. (The use of the word "batter" to describe a pre-fish cake mixture should be a clue that something went wrong.) We decided to scoop them out and cook them on the griddle like pancakes. To entice K, JW told him we were having "fish pancakes" for dinner. (Our other technique: describing everything as a "meatball." Before the batter snafu, we were going to have "fish meatballs.") Even though we turned down K's request for syrup, the fish pancakes were a hit! I'll make these again. They tasted a bit like latkes and were good cold the next day.

Recipe: Dice 3 red potatoes and microwave 6 minutes. Dice 1 lb cod and microwave in bowl with potatoes for another 2 minutes. Mash up this mixture. In a separate bowl, mix 2 eggs, some mustard, hot sauce, Worcester sauce, S&P, and two bunches of sliced scallions. Mix everything together and cook like pancakes in a mixture of olive oil and butter.

I also made cottage cheese pancakes from one of the Moosewood cookbooks, except I used leftover ricotta instead of the cottage cheese. The first time I made them with pear, the second time with apple. I preferred the pear version -- the apples were a little crunchy, but the pears melted right into the batter. Both would be good with nuts (almond for the pear, walnut or pecan for the apple). JW liked them fine, but I LOVED them -- probably because they're one step removed from cheesecake.

Recipe (slightly modified by me): Combine 2 eggs, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1 grated apple, 1 T maple syrup, some salt, nutmeg, and vanilla in mixing bowl. Sprinkle over 1/4 c. flour and 1 T baking soda. Cook in a little melted butter.

By the way, the ricotta was left over because I made pizza rustica for Easter. Pizza rustica is a mixture of Italian meats and cheese mixed with ricotta and egg and baked in a pie crust. But I did mine in a dough ring (like a calzone, but with the ends together to form a circle) and the rest as a normal pizza, on pizza dough. The in-laws preferred the pizza, JW and I liked the ring. This was a great special-occasion meal to share -- maybe I'll make it again for Christmas.

Didn't use a recipe, but this is what I did: Bought 3/4 lb Italian cold cuts from the North End. I think I ended up using about half of them, cut up into little pieces with kitchen shears. Cut little slices of provolone and mixed it in. Add to 2 beaten eggs (or maybe 3 or 4? don't remember), about 1-1.5 cups ricotta (most recipes use a lot more), chopped roasted red peppers and spinach sauteed in olive oil with shallots and garlic. This mixture can be used in all sorts of ways to fill or top dough. With some more eggs it could be quiche-like.