Potato cake with sardines
The potato is great friends with the sardine. Here it is, for once not mashed, not as a Parmentier, not shredded or even crumbled, not as a revisited purée, but simply boiled, peeled, sliced and browned on the cut side in a pan.
But let us go back. On the subject of the famous Parmentier, an eminent scientist, thanks to whom this tuber became an edible and good vegetable, whereas popular wrath considered it harmful and a carrier of disease.
It was in 1778 that he published L’examen chimique de la Pomme de terre (the chemical examination of the potato), which gave this root its edible dignity. After many periods of famine, potatoes were eaten first in barracks and then in families.
So you have the potato slices nicely crisp; set them aside. You have bought lovely fresh, glistening sardines, bright of eye and scarlet of gill. Cut off their heads, remove the guts, easy so far. Removing the bone takes dexterity if you have never done it, but the hardest part is taking off the skin to have beautiful fillets.
You have to run your thumbs between the flesh and the skin, then put the sardine fillets in lemon juice to cook for a few minutes, and make a melted butter into which you pour your lemon juice.
You will, of course, have snipped chives with scissors. Then on the potato slice, two sardine fillets on top, head to tail, buttery lemon juice, another potato slice and two sardine fillets. Repeat the operation three times to make the perfect cake.
There is the masterpiece! An architecture to make Jean Nouvel turn pale, covered with lemon butter and chives. It’s beautiful, it’s good!
For the lazy, it also works with tinned sardines. And for the seasoning, as you see fit, according to your tastes!
