Hamburger Pannfisch

Hamburger Pannfisch belongs to the harbour table, not the banquet table. It is northern food, strongest around Hamburg and the Elbe, built from yesterday's cooked fish, boiled potatoes, and a mustard sauce sharp enough to wake the whole pan. This is weeknight cooking when there is leftover cod or haddock in the cold box, and Sunday cooking when the fishmonger had good trim. Weggeworfen wird nichts.

The regions split where they always split. In Hamburg the fish is often already poached and the sauce is mustard-forward; in Schleswig-Holstein you'll see more dill and sometimes herring; further south they would rather argue about pork and dumplings. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. Das ist kein Bierzelt.

The technique is simple and strict: brown the potatoes first, in one layer, and leave them alone long enough to crust. Cold boiled potatoes have set starch, so they fry clean instead of smearing into the pan. The fish goes in late because it's already cooked; give it colour, not punishment. Boil the mustard hard and you've cooked away the edge, so it goes into the sauce at the end. Erst verstehen, dann kochen.

Use the fish liquor for the sauce if you poach fish today. Use yesterday's cooking liquor if you saved it. If you didn't, make a small stock from the fish trimmings and onion skin while the potatoes fry. Nicht aus dem Glas.