German fish balls with green sauce

This dish makes for a lovely, light supper. The fish is moist and almost bouncy, the sauce an equal combination of buttery goodness, tangy creaminess from the sour cream and a rat-a-tat jolt of the various bitter-sweet-aromatic herbs as you taste each one. As a main course, I’d serve this with new potatoes or bread. But it’d be fantastic alone as a summertime starter.

• serves

  4

• prep

  30 minutes

• cook

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

Fish meatballs

• 500 g fish fillets, such as trout 
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tsp salt
• ½ cup plain breadcrumbs
• 2 tsp finely chopped fresh dill
• 2 tsp finely chopped fresh parsley

Green sauce

• 60 g unsalted butter
• 1 large French shallot, finely chopped
• 250 ml (1 cup) fish stock or chicken stock
• 2 tbsp finely chopped spinach, amaranth or lamb’s quarters (see Note)
• ¼ cup chopped sorrel (optional)
• ¼ cup finely chopped parsley
• 2 tbsp chopped dill
• 2 tbsp finely chopped garlic chives or regular chives
• 1 sage leaf, finely chopped
• salt and black pepper, to season
• ½ cup sour cream, at room temperature

Instructions

To make the meatballs, grind the fish in a meat grinder, pulse in a food processor or chop finely with a knife. Simply mix all the ingredients in a bowl and form into small meatballs, about the size of a walnut. To cook, bring a large saucepan of salty water to the boil and gently lower the fish balls, one at a time, into the water – they will sink. Turn the heat down to a bare simmer – if you let it boil again, it can destroy your fish balls. Simmer gently until the meatballs float. Look for a total cooking time of about 10 minutes or so. Remove the fish balls from the hot water and set aside.

Meanwhile, make the green sauce. Heat the butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. When it’s hot, add the shallot and cook, stirring, until it’s translucent and soft, about 3 minutes or so (don’t let them brown). Add the stock and bring to a boil. Boil hard for a few minutes until the sauce reduces by about one-third. Turn the heat as low as it will go and stir in all the herbs. Let them all wilt. Add salt and black pepper to taste and turn the heat off.

When all the fish balls are ready, turn the heat back on the sauce to warm it and coat the fish balls with the sauce. When the sauce boils again, turn off the heat, let the bubbling subside and add the sour cream, stirring constantly. Adjust for salt and black pepper once more and serve at once.

Note

• Amaranth and lamb’s quarters are edible weeds foraged or cultivated as leafy vegetables.

Recipe from Hunter Angler Gardener Cook by Hank Shaw, with photographs by Holly A. Heyser.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.