Rockfish Cakes with Bacon and Old Bay

So let’s say you’ve made Rockfish BLAT’s with a package of the rockfish that you caught during a friend’s bachelor party. Let’s also say that that package of fish happened to contain six fillets as a result of numerical oversight and/or overall exasperation while vacuum-sealing for four fucking hours. So let’s say you made all of the fish, with no further thought as to what is to be done with the remaining, cooked fillets. So what the hell do you do?

I can tell you a few things NOT to do:

1. Throw it into a frying pan – it just dries it out.
2. Microwave it, especially in a public (read: lunchroom) microwave – microwaved fish is disgusting, and nearly as rude – and just as noxious – to the people in the general vicinity as if you were flinging your own feces
3. Throw it away – pound for pound this damned fish is worth more than certified conflict-free diamonds

So I conferred with my trusted confidant – Google – which returned the easiest and most obvious idea: fish cakes.

It makes sense. Fish cakes are easy to make, forgiving, flavorful and satisfying. So I  started planning… and then summarily forgot to stop at the store to pick up my ingredients, but when I got home I raided the fridge and found the following ingredients:

Fish cakes

• 3 cups cooked rockfish (pan-fried with Old Bay seasoning)
• ½ cup chopped bacon
• ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1.5 cups breadcrumbs
• ¼ cup mayo
• 3 eggs
• ½ tsp Old Bay
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• olive oil (for frying)

Salad:

• 2 fresh, sliced tomatoes
• 2 large handfuls of mixed greens
• 1 large, ripe avocado, sliced
• shallot-balsamic vinaigrette

Flake the cooked fish, and chop the bacon and parsley. Combine all of the ingredients and form the mixture into four ½-¾ inch thick patties.

Heat 1 tbs of olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet.

Cook the cakes until browned on each side (5-6 minutes), turning once.

Serve over a bed of greens with a few slices of tomato and avocado, and a drizzle of vinaigrette.

Enjoy!