Trout fritters, cured sardines and tuna pasta: Ellie Bouhadana’s impressive fish recipes | Australian food and drink

I haven’t had formal training as a chef; rather, my food background lies in my blended Jewish culture, my family’s food heritage and what I have learned on my travels and in past restaurants and kitchens, and continue to learn day to day with my team at Hope St Radio in Melbourne.

In my world, the food of home is everything. I was raised in a mixed Jewish family, with immigrant parents and grandparents always hovering about. My father and his family are from the Sephardic world, specifically Morocco. My mother and her family are Ashkenazi Jews, from Germany and eastern Europe.

Cook these recipes whenever you are in need of some immigrant grandma energy or a chef’s snack.

Fishcakes with green herbs and labneh

(Pictured above)

Fishballs, fishcakes and fish fritters are common in Jewish cuisine. I once ate a dreamy plate of them cooked by a Jewish woman of Syrian Lebanese heritage at her restaurant in Tel Aviv. They were served with lots of herbs and yoghurt, reminding me how much I love fritters made with fish. The recipe below uses trout and flathead, but flathead and fresh sardines also pair well. Ultimately you should choose the two types of fish that look freshest at your fishmonger, ideally one a firm and one an oily fish. I like eating these fish cakes with labneh or plain sour yoghurt. Serve with a bite of crisp salad and pickled chillies on the side and you will forget everything but the decadent flavours rolling around your mouth.

Serves 4

250g skinless flathead fillets
300g skinless trout fillets
2 tbsp mint, roughly chopped, plus extra to serve
35g coriander, roughly chopped, plus extra to serve
2 tbsp flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, roughly chopped, plus extra to serve
½ green chilli, seeds left in, finely diced
1 lemon, zest grated
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper, freshly ground
½ tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp fennel seeds, crushed in a mortar and pestle
½ tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus 3 tbsp for frying
Labneh, to serve (either store-bought or see recipe below)
A pinch of sumac, to serve
4 lemon cheeks, to serve
Extra-virgin olive oil, to serve
Lemon juice, to serve

Mince the fish by hand with a sharp knife or pulse in a food processor briefly until you have a coarse texture that is not at all smooth – you want to retain some texture in these fishcakes.

Put the minced fish in a wide bowl and add the herbs, chilli, lemon zest, salt, pepper and spices, and two tablespoons of olive oil.

Mix by hand until everything is incorporated and the fish takes on a slightly yellow, spiced colour. You will want to taste the mixture at this point to make sure the fish cakes are well seasoned. To do this, heat the three tablespoons of olive oil in a wide, deep frying pan over a medium-high heat. Roll a small portion of the fish mixture into a ball and sear it in the warmed pan. Remove the pan from the heat. Taste for salt, pepper and acidity from the lemon zest, and add more of any of these ingredients to the mixture if you think it needs it.

To make the fishcakes, form the mixture into balls about the size of a golf ball and flatten them slightly so they take on a patty shape.

Reheat the oil in the frying pan over a medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, fry the fishcakes in batches until golden, about two minutes each side.

To serve, layer the labneh on to a serving plate and top with a pinch of sumac. Place the fish cakes on top of the labneh, and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice. Scatter with a handful more of each of the fresh herbs, then put the lemon cheeks between the fish cakes and serve while hot.

Homemade labneh

Makes 1 small jar

1L full-cream milk (4 cups)
3-4 tbsp plain yoghurt
¾ tsp salt

You will need a food thermometer and sterilised jars for this recipe.

Warm the milk in a large, heavy-based or cast-iron saucepan over a medium heat until it reaches a boil (about 90C if you are using a thermometer) then gently simmer for two minutes, stirring it every now and then to prevent a skin from forming.

Take the saucepan off the heat and put it in an ice bath to cool down to 35-40C but no lower or higher.

Spoon the yoghurt into a bowl and whisk in 250ml of the warm milk thoroughly. Don’t add the milk when it is too hot or you will kill the bacteria. Pour the yoghurt-milk mixture into the remaining warm milk and whisk again thoroughly to combine – this will ensure a smooth yoghurt.

Pour the yoghurt mixture into sterilised jars and seal the lids. Leave the yoghurt mixture in a warm spot, about 25C, to set for 10 or so hours, by which time it should have thickened into yoghurt, then transfer to the fridge to chill and thicken further for at least two hours.

Mix the salt into the chilled yoghurt. Pour the yoghurt into a deep bowl lined with muslin cloth, tie the ends of the cloth together and hang it over a bowl in the fridge to drain for 24 to 48 hours, depending on how soft and creamy you want it. Draining the yoghurt for longer will give you a thicker, creamier labneh. Check it every 12 hours and when the labneh has reached your desired consistency, transfer it to an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to a week.

You can serve the labneh simply, with a bit of flaky salt and olive oil sprinkled over the top, as well as fresh herbs, such as mint or parsley.

If you don’t have time to make labneh from scratch you can make this simple version. Take one litre of good quality, plain natural yoghurt, mix it in a bowl with the juice of four lemons, and season with about one tablespoon of flaky salt. Pour the yoghurt into a muslin cloth, tie the ends together and place it inside a sieve. Place the sieve over a bowl in the fridge to drain overnight until the bowl is full of liquid and you have a cheesecloth full of thick labneh.

Cured fresh sardines

Curing fresh baby fish is surprisingly simple and very satisfying. They look beautiful firming up under lemon juice and oil, and the addition of garlic, parsley and oregano gives a punchy herbiness. When I was in Italy I learned to make this dish with fresh baby anchovies – if you happen to come across fresh anchovies at the market, use them in place of sardines. You could also make this with other small fish such as fresh baby mackerel.

Serves 2

250g very fresh sardines, cleaned and butterflied by your fishmonger (or see recipe to clean them yourself)
3 tsp red-wine vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon
3 garlic cloves, finely sliced
Small handful of flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, finely chopped
2 oregano sprigs
60ml extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra if needed

If cleaning the sardines yourself, cut off the heads with a sharp knife, then slice open each belly from head to tail and clean out the guts. Rinse the inside of the belly under cold water. Pinch the spine and gently pull it free of the flesh. You are now holding a butterflied sardine.

Arrange the cleaned sardines in a shallow ceramic or glass dish, lightly season with salt and pour over the red-wine vinegar, followed by the lemon juice. Sprinkle with the garlic, parsley and oregano, then pour the extra-virgin olive oil over the sardines to cover (use a little more if needed).

Cover the dish and put it in the fridge to cure for at least six hours, or overnight. Serve with focaccia and marinated vegetables.

Paccheri with tuna amatriciana

In Procida, an island off the coast of Naples in southern Italy, I booked dinner one night at a plain but beautiful restaurant with a view of the ocean. There I ate a meal that lingered in my mind as something I wanted to try making myself: an amatriciana with tuna. At first I was confused by the idea of adding tuna to this classic Roman dish but, after ordering it, I found the fish paired wonderfully with the guanciale (cured pork cheek).

Although there is plenty of debate about how to properly make amatriciana, the addition of tuna means this recipe is not trying to be traditional at all – although, as with any good amatriciana, it calls for good guanciale, as well as very good tinned tomatoes. I love serving this sauce with paccheri or calamarata pasta, a thick ring shape originating from Naples, but a short pasta shape, such as rigatoni, would work well too.

Serves 2–3

400g tin of whole peeled tomatoes
120g guanciale (ask the butcher or deli to cut the meat into 1cm-thick slices)
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
60ml white wine
½ tsp chilli flakes
220g paccheri pasta
200g fresh tuna steak
2 tbsp pecorino, grated
1 tbsp parmesan, grated
Handful of flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, finely chopped

To make the sauce, place the tomatoes in a bowl and crush them with your hands so they are in small, rough pieces.

Slice the guanciale into strips 5cm wide, then put it in a wide frying pan over a low-medium heat, with one tablespoon of the olive oil. Fry until the guanciale has rendered quite a bit of fat, turned a golden colour and is crisp at the edges (about 10 to 15 minutes). Try not to move the guanciale around too much – you want to maximise contact with the hot pan so it will get crispy. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, place the crisp guanciale on a plate, leaving as much oil in the pan as possible. Set the guanciale aside.

Pour the white wine into the pan, leaving it to bubble and the alcohol to cook off for about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, chilli flakes and a generous pinch of flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper, and stir. Bring the sauce to a gentle simmer, then leave it to cook over a low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. By this time the sauce should look rich and the fat should be coming to the surface. It should taste deep in flavour but, if not, let it go a little longer – an extra five to 10 minutes should be enough.

Add three-quarters of the guanciale to the sauce (saving some for garnish at the end) and leave to gently simmer over a low heat.

While the sauce is simmering, cook the pasta. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil over a high heat, then season with salt (making sure the water tastes well seasoned) and stir. Add the pasta and stir to prevent it sticking together. Cook until it is al dente (usually two minutes less than the recommended cooking time on the packet).