One of the strongest memories of my childhood years is my mom standing next to the table in our small, narrow kitchen. At the end of the table is a cast iron meat grinder, edging slightly passed the side of the table. Beneath the opening of the grinder is a deep bowl. Next to the grinder there were plates with onions cut into quarters, garlic cloves, parsley, cilantro, slices of bread that were soaked in water and squeezed, and of course, meat. Except on Fridays, on Fridays, pieces of fillet of fish replaced the meat. As if in a ceremony,
mom would put a piece of fish into the grinder, push it inward with an upside down wooden spoon, and start turning the grinder handle. While turning the handle of the grinder, she would put in a few pieces of onion, a clove of garlic, a little parsley, a little coriander and a piece of bread. Out of the exit hole, a colorful mix of the ingredients came out. That way she would continue, in the same order, until all the ingredients of the patties turned into an herb-dotted mix. She would add eggs, breadcrumbs and spices to the mix, form elongated patties, and put them one by one into the pan with the bubbling tomato sauce. Though I didn’t eat fish, not even fish patties, I always loved helping mom grind meat or fish, fascinated by the raw ingredients changing their texture.
Ingredients
Fish patties
2 lb ground fish (can be one type or mix of a few, I used a mix of Tilapia, Flounder and Corvina )
1 onion cut to quarters
3 garlic cloves
1 cup parsley
1 cup cilantro
1 medium potato finely grated
2 eggs
3 TBS breadcrumbs
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
Sauce
1 onion diced
1 red pepper diced
2 tomatoes diced
3-4 garlic cloves sliced
1 hot green pepper sliced
1 cup cooked chickpeas
3 TBS tomato paste
5 hot red dry peppers
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
1 TBS sugar
Juice from 1 lemon (about 2 TBS)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 ½ cup water
Oil for frying
Patties
Grind the onion, cloves, parsley and cilantro in a food processor bowl with the chopping blade. Put the mix in a deep bowl. Add the fish pieces into the same food processor bowl (no need to wash it) and grind them coarse grinding. Work with small batches and use short pulses to control texture. Add the ground fish to the bowl. Add eggs breadcrumbs and spices, mix well and chill for one hour. With wet hands form elongated patties.
Sauce
Heat oil in a deep large nonstick pan over medium high heat. Add onion and fry to golden. Add cloves and hot green pepper and fry one more minute. Add the hot red dry pepper and fry one more minute. Add the diced red pepper, the diced tomatoes and the cooked chickpeas and stir. Add the tomato paste, stir well and cook for 5 minutes over medium heat. Add spices, sugar lemon juice and stir. Add the water and bring to boil.
Place the fish patties in one layer, bring to boil again. Low heat and cook 30 minutes over low heat.
