So my characters are having dinner, and I thought I should mention something about the food, seeing as the heroine’s presence is distracting the hero from a wonderful meal. I took out my trusty Mrs. Beeton’s. My parents gave me this book for Christmas when I was eighteen -- even then, two of my interests were obvious: history and food.
So after flipping through it for a while, I decided they’re going to eat baked carp, because the carp can come from the heroine’s father’s fish pond. As Mrs. Beeton (who in a short life in Victorian times had several children and wrote a massive tome) says, “the carp both grows and increases very fast, and is accounted the most valuable of all fish for the stocking of ponds.” Perfect -- this gives the old man a topic of conversation when he wants to change the subject from… magic. (Yes, this story has magic in it, just at little, at least so far.)
So while I was nosing through the fish section of Mrs. Beeton’s tome (such cool stuff -- Collared Eel! Fish and Oyster Pie!), I found a recipe for fish cakes. It’s a lot like what I do nowadays when making salmon patties. I won’t include her recipe here because it’s a lot more involved than making patties from canned fish, but one of these days I’ll try it, adapt it and blog about it.
Here’s the recipe for Salmon Patties.
1 large can red salmon, drained, but conserve the liquid (You can use pink salmon, but red is much, much tastier.)
1 or 2 eggs
Italian bread crumbs
Spring onions, chopped fine
Mix all ingredients together, adding bread crumbs and conserved liquid until the mixture is the right consistency. Form into patties and pan fry in ¼” oil until heated through.
Sprinkle with lemon and eat with bread and salad. They’re also great eaten cold in a sandwich. Enjoy!
