Fish Cake ( Pudin de Pescado)

This recipe is one that came to me through my mother. Where she learned it or started to make it, I do not know but I remember it as being always delicious and always accompanied by white rice and a tomato sauce on the side.
I know my mother always tried to use her leftover to create other dishes so many times if there was leftover fish we would have this but other times I know she would start out with fresh or frozen fish. You can use any type of white fish ( cod, tilapia, whiting,etc.) and if you would like to make if special you can add boiled shrimp.
The recipe is as follows:

Four fillets of any white fish ( Pollock, Whiting, Cod, Flounder,etc.)
One medium onion
Two large cloves of garlic
Two or three medium carrots
1/4 cup of bread crumbs
Worcestershire sauce to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil and butter to saute cooked fish and veggies
three or four eggs beaten
2 to 3 cups of milk

In a large frying pan add about 2 TBSP of oil and 2 of butter. Saute the diced onion, minced garlic and chopped carrots. When tender and brown add the boiled fish all crumbled. Then add salt,pepper to taste and the Worcestershire sauce. Add the bread crumbs to this mixture and cook for another five minutes or so.
In a bowl mix the eggs and milk well beaten with a pinch of salt. Add the the mixture of the fish.
In a oven proof dish already buttered and pour the fish batter and place in a hot oven of 350 degrees to cook till its done or till when you place a toothpick in it, it will come out clean ( approx. time of cooking is about 30 min.)

Serve with some white rice and a sauce mixture of half mayo and half catchup.
Enjoy, its healthy and delicious!!

German potato salad (Kartoffelsalat)

In southern Germany this coarse cut potato side dish is served with vinegar and oil. In northern Germany mayo is added, but how did this recipe become widespread when potatoes were not part of the old German diet.
Potatoes (Kartoffel) got to Germany by a long route first from the Spanish from South America to Spain, and then they slowly spread throughout Europe. The Spanish first thought they were truffles! Maybe because they were dug from the earth like truffles are. The Italians were the first to try cultivating the potato,but with little luck. The word Kartoffel comes from the Italian word Tartufolo (truffles). Since the leaves were poisonous the potato got a bad reputation as something to avoid.
Potatoes also got the reputation for causing lustful thoughts, so many avoided these "fruits of the devil" even if they were hungry! The first cultivated potatoes were not very good either. They were very small and sometimes bitter. It took some cross breading to get the potato as we know it today. In it's modern fashion it is only about 250 years old.The first potatoes were planted in Germany in the mid 1500's but It became something only the peasants grew on their land and ate as cheap sustenance for many years.

Ingredients
Four to five potatoes (you may use one pound of new potatoes leaving skin) boil potatoes till medium soft.
One small yellow or white onion
One small red onion
Eight to ten strips of bacon cooked and cut into pieces.
Kielbasa sausage, one pound
1/4 cup of chop green onion
Salt and pepper to taste
One tsp of mustard sead
Olive oil
Malt vinager if desired, about one TBSP

Boil potatoes, till medium soft, then cut into medium size pieces. Place into large open pan diced onions oli and sausage, when golden add the potatoes. Mix well and season. Cook till golden brown. Add then bacon and stir . Finally add if desired the vinager and green onion. Serve hot as is or with some favorite cheese .