Fish Fillet and Coleslaw Sandwich

It would be an ordinary fish fillet sandwich were it not for the coleslaw. The secret? Cream cheese in the dressing. There is a pineapple coleslaw recipe in the archive, a reader suggested adding blue cheese to it and that got me thinking. I don’t keep a regular supply of blue cheese but there’s always cream cheese in the fridge. Why not cream cheese? Amazingly, the coleslaw was transformed. And my rather plain fish fillet sandwich became something akin to gourmet stuff.

I suggest that you make the coleslaw first and keep it in the fridge while you fry the fish. That way, the fish will still be hot and crisp when you assemble the sandwich. Heat about four cups of water in a pan. When boiling, add the shredded cabbage and chopped carrot. Allow to cook for two minutes. Drain, dump in a bowl of iced water, and drain again. Squeeze out as much water as you can. This will ensure that your coleslaw won’t turn watery later and make your sandwich soggy.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the cream cheese, mayonnaise, lemon juice, pineapple, salt, and pepper until smooth. Add the cabbage and carrot mixture and toss to distribute evenly. Taste, adjust the seasonings, add some sugar if you like, then transfer to a bowl, cover, and chill in the fridge.

To make four sandwiches with generous filling, you’ll need about 500 g. of fish fillet. If they are rather thick, slice them horizontally to make them thinner. There’s no real recipe for the fish fillet filling as it’s just a matter of seasoning the fish (salt, pepper, and whatever herbs you like), dredging in a mixture of flour and yellow cornmeal, and frying until crisp and golden.

Cut the crusts of eight slices of bread (you can keep the crusts if you like), toast then lay them on a flat surface. Place a fish fillet on a slice of bread, cover with the coleslaw, and top with another slice of bread. Repeat. You can cut the sandwiches into two to three portions, in triangles or squares, or rectangles, or you can serve them whole.