Ricotta and Potato Chip Fish Cakes Updated

Ricotta and Potato Chip Fish Cakes

When I've been at my near anxious, I've felt similar life is one long grocery list that includes something I need that I can't find anywhere…

Sometimes I think I was built-in with a list of things I was worried about (epigenetic inheritance is existent!) and sometimes I think I do a very skilful job of finding new things to worry about all by myself. In addition to therapy, slumber, physical activity (whether it's walking or practice or gardening), and talking to my married woman and my friends, cooking has too been a majorly calming force in my life. While nutrient has definitely brought up plenty to make me anxious about, making it has been the most consistent tool I have to assist me feel grounded.

Food has always helped me walk through doors that feel scary. I didn't attend many parties in high school, so when I first got to higher and my new friends invited me to go to parties, I smiled and said yep while I quietly panicked inside. Be comfortable at a party? Hang out with people from school besides at school? I wasn't then certain about that.

Existence someone who doesn't like to get in anywhere empty-handed, fifty-fifty a college business firm political party, I quickly learned that I could assuage my social anxiety if I stopped at the corner deli, bought the biggest bag of potato chips I could find, and brought them with me. They gave me an easy fashion to walk up to people without feeling totally awkward. "Want a murphy chip?" felt a lot easier than saying "hello." Certain, it was a shtick, but the chips gave me a fashion in. I eventually became comfy at parties and other occasions without a bag of fries, but the chips helped pave that comfort.

The other way I've always gone near making friends is inviting people over for a meal. In fact, when I moved into my freshman dorm, I brought a pot and a toolbox filled with basic kitchen tools so it would be easy to take them in and out of the communal kitchen. Those tools, a wooden spoon and a peeler and tongs and such, made me feel like I had the things I needed to practise something I loved to do in a place that felt so unfamiliar. They made me feel secure. I made spaghetti for my floor mates and roasted craven in disposable aluminum pans from the grocery store. It was a way to extend myself to my new customs.

When I moved into an apartment off campus, I saved up money to purchase my first sturdy Dutch oven. I retrieve a friend telling me that my pot was "so grown up." It made me feel adult when I wasn't and then sure what that was (still don't always know, by the way). Cooking non but calmed me, it likewise helped me feel like I could make the large world I found myself in feel a little fleck smaller.

Anxiety, like many complicated things, has so many edges. When I need to go out a stressful setting, or group of people, cooking too lets me exercise that. In other words, information technology's non just a way to connect, it's likewise a fashion to disconnect. You tin always leave your dining room table to do some dishes or to "get dessert ready" fifty-fifty if it's already prepare. The kitchen tin be a place to take a jiff. Information technology's part of why I dearest grilling so much. Information technology means I get to be outside while everyone is inside. I'm still part of the party, I'm making the food!, but I get to be a little fleck at arm's length. And sometimes, that'due south exactly where I feel most calm.

When I talk to other people virtually anxiety, I always like to find out when people feel most themselves, most free of worry. For me, it'south when I'm continuing in my kitchen by myself cooking because I feel like it, non because I demand to. In that location'southward music playing. I tin can hear my wife doing something in the other room. I tin can run into our dogs lazily napping on the demote past the kitchen window. I am chopping vegetables, doing the thing that so many other people are doing at the same fourth dimension effectually the world. I am lonely, but I am besides in solidarity. I am content and present. I know what I'm making and take everything I need to do so. I don't care if information technology turns out perfectly. It'south only dinner. I'm worried about nothing.

Ricotta and Potato Chip Fish Cakes with Peas
From the new cookbook Merely Julia
An homage to the salmon patties I got to savor one morn at Narobia's Grits & Gravy in Savannah, Georgia (which, sadly, has since airtight), these fish cakes rely on canned salmon, i of the nearly convenient and reliable things to continue in your cupboard.Subsequently you lot chocolate-brown the fish cakes, you add some frozen peas and one-half-and-half to the skillet, which makes a vivid green bed for the fish cakes. Y'all could also skip the peas and serve the fish cakes on toasted irish potato buns slicked with mayonnaise and piled with shredded lettuce and sliced pickles.
Serves 4

1 ii-ounce bag potato chips (preferably sour cream and onion-flavored)
Two 6-ounce cans wild pink salmon packed in water, well-drained
1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning (or 1 teaspoon each kosher common salt, sweet paprika, and garlic powder)
1 lemon
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
One 10-ounce package frozen peas
½ cup half-and-one-half
½ teaspoon kosher salt

Let some air out of the tater chip bag and then crush the bag with a rolling pin or wine canteen to make fine crumbs. Transfer the irish potato chip crumbs to a big bowl and add together the salmon, ricotta, and Old Bay. Finely grate the zest from the lemon and add information technology to the bowl (reserve the zested lemon). Stir the mixture well to combine, actually breaking up the salmon as you mix.

Carve up the mixture into viii equal portions and use your hands to form each into a patty. It's helpful to divide the mixture in one-half and then in half againand so on to make sure the patties are the same size.

Place the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Once information technology melts and begins to chimera, place the fish cakes in the skillet and cook without disturbing them until their bottoms are nicely browned (what a sentence!), 2 to 3 minutes. Utilise a spatula to carefully flip each one over and cook until nicely browned on the second side, another ii to iii minutes. Y'all might need to cook the fish cakes in 2 batches depending on the size of your pan (yous don't want to crowd the pan, and definitely give yourself space to flip them—think of the spacing similar pancakes). Transfer the fish cakes to a plate and cover them with foil to go along them warm.

Turn the heat to high and place the peas, half-and-half, and salt in the same skillet. Cook, stirring, just until the peas are bright green and tender andthe half-and-half has reduced slightly, near 4 minutes. Transfer the saucy peas to a serving platter and place the fish cakes on top. Cut the zested lemon into wedges and serve the wedges with the fish cakes for squeezing over. Serve immediately.

Thanks, Julia! We love your book.

(This essay and recipe was reprinted from the new cookbook Simply Julia with permission. Photos by Melina Hammer.)

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