I have a beautiful basil plant inmy backyard and it is getting pretty large, so I planned to use it in my cooking
Ingredients
1kg/ 2lb. 4 oz. cod/ haddock/ halibutfish fillet
1large onionroughly chopped
1garlic head
1redHabanero pepper
1tablespoonsaltor to taste
2cupsfresh basil leaves
1cupbreadcrumbspreferably panko
3cupscanola oilfor frying the fish
A pinch of freshly grated black pepper
For the basil oilive oilsauce:
¾cupbasil leaves
½cupolive oil
1garlic clovecrushed
1red pepperoptional
A pinch of salt
Instructions
Leave the fish fillet out to defrost (if frozen) just enough that you can cut it with a knife. Rinse and pat dry with kitchen paper towels.
Cut the fish into medium squares and transfer to afood processor (you may probably need to do that in batches) and blend until you have a smooth paste with no solid pieces. (Remove obvious veins)
Place the onion, garlic cloves and basil leaves in a food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse until finely minced. Addthe smooth pureed fish andpulse to incorporate together the fish with the basil mixture. Adjust salt and black pepper and red Habanero(if used) to taste . Refrigerate the fish paste for 1 hour.
With your hands, shape the mixture into 10 – 12 balls roughly the size of a tennis ball. Form into steak-sized patties.
In a shallow container, place the breadcrumbs and dredge both sides of each patty, completely covering the fish.
Heat oil to an adequate frying temperature and fry the fish patties, in batches, to a golden color. Serve immediately and drizzle a teaspoon of basil olive oil over each serving, optional!
Notes
To make the basil olive oil: Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until you have a smooth paste!