Haddock, Chickpea & Potato Patties (My Attempt At A Recipe)

If you've read some of my posts or my FAQ section, you know that while I love working with recipes, I have never tried to document any of my kitchen experiments. While I say that it's because I'm lazy, it's not really. I love cooking and I love great recipes whether they're complex or simple (check out gojee.com), but while I'm methodical and a perfectionist about some things, making recipes just isn't one of them. I'm happy to rely on other people who do it better than I do and remain a bit of a free spirit in the kitchen.

However, this one worked out well and it's fairly simple. Plus, my teaser post on Twitter garnered a recipe request from eos_girl; so, if you like it, send your thanks her way. While it was my dinner, I think it would work splendidly as an appetizer or hors d'oeuvres. Making them a bit larger and serving with a lovely green salad or in a pita would be spectacular, too. I currently have a jar of Aki's Fine Foods Coriander Chutney in the fridge; so, I tried it with that and it was spectacular. If you're allergic to fish or just don't eat it, skip that part and add cooked quinoa and whatever spices you like. If you don't have haddock, I was initially going to do this with cod; so, I'm sure it would be lovely, too.

Anyway, here goes:

Haddock, Chickpea & Potato Patties with Coriander Chutney
Makes 14-ish

1 1/2 large haddock filets, poached, skin removed, chopped into chunks
1 can of chickpeas, drained
1 medium-sized potato, roughly chopped and boiled (skin removed after boiling)
1 1/4 cup panko
2 cloves of garlic (or more depending on your preference), smashed and roughly diced
Thumb-sized piece of ginger, skins removed, roughly diced
3-4 scallions, thinly sliced
1/4 medium red onion, roughly chopped
Canola oil for frying
1 - 1 1/2 tsps of salt (depending on your preference)
A couple of dashes of pepper (depending on your preference) 
Coriander chutney (found in Indian stores)

1. Poach the fish in water until cooked and boil the potato until soft enough to mash.
 2. Combine all ingredients, except for the canola oil, in a food processor. Give it a few turns so everything is combined. It's lovely to see bits of scallion and whole chickpeas in the finished patty; so, don't be too particular. Make sure to spoon down the sides and toss the mixture a bit to ensure everything is combined evenly, especially the salt.
3. Make patties about palm-sized and about 3/4s of an inch thick. I ended up with about 14.
4. Preheat pan on medium-high heat with a few good glugs of canola oil. The patties shouldn't be swimming since you don't want to deep-fry them, but there should be a decent coating of oil on the pan.
5. Cook 3-4 minutes on each side. You'll have to watch it very carefully at this point to ensure it doesn't burn and that you're cooking it all the way through. The sign that one side is done is a just visible pillar of white smoke coming from the pan, but way before you smell anything burning. A good sign that a side is done is that it should be a deep, crispy brown.
6. Place on paper towels to absorb some of the extra oil.
7. Continue to add oil as needed and fry remaining patties.
8. Serve warm with a coriander chutney. If you can't find it premade or just prefer to make your own, there are a lot of recipes on the internet and it's quite easy to make. Its claim to fame is as a partner to samosas. Yum.

That's it! My first recipe and proof that I should never make recipes. Feel free to play with this one especially if it's not looking right. This was just a result of having some haddock that needed to be used and I'd already been thinking about making a chickpea/edamame patty but didn't have all the ingredients I needed. I'm pretty happy I was out of limes!

One note, I didn't add any hot spices because I was keeping it simple. Coriander chutney can be spicy; so, if you're going to eat the patties with the chutney, best to either not add any chilies or to just add a bit.

If you cook this, let me know how it goes!