Tuesday 28 March 2006

Fishcakes For Tea

A while ago, I had dinner with dear Carl and my lovely friend Lisa at a place called the Cellar. This is a tiny little bar-restaurant under ground! Steep little steps lead down to it, and then the whole place feels slightly wonky, but delightful. Well when we went there, I had the most amazing fishcakes with mango salsa- and they were wonderful.

I got home last night with a real craving for salmon, so I set to, and whipped up my own version of those fish cakes. And without being immodest, it was rather yum!

For the fishcakes:

600g potatoes, peeled and cubed up small
260g salmon fillet
2 spring onions
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tsp Dijon mustard
a slosh of milk

For the Pea Puree:

120g frozen peas
3 dollops greek yoghurt
a large sprinkle of dried mint (I never seem to have any fresh!)

Boil the potatoes for about 15 minutes until they are tender.

While this is going on, put the salmon in a single layer in a saucepan; just cover with milk.

Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 4 minutes until the salmon is cooked.

Remove the salmon, flake into pieces, and allow to cool a few minutes.

Drain the potatoes, and mash really well. Lots of fork action! You need the mash quite dry, but you could add a dribble of the milk you poached the salmon in if you want.

Stir into the mash the mustard, tomato sauce, spring onions, and half the salmon.

Add the other half of the salmon. Try not to break the fish up too much- you want big chunks.

Flour your hands, and tip some flour onto a plate. Take handfulls of the mixture, and shape into fishcakes, then dust with flour. You should get about 8...although I got 7!

Fry in a little oil, butter, or frylight spray for about 3 minutes on each side.

While they are frying, boil the peas rapidly for a few minutes until they are cooked, drain, tip into a food processor (oh, how I love my Mulitquick!) and blitz for a few seconds. Dollop in some greek yoghurt and mint, blitz again. Taste, and add more yoghurt or mint as you see fit.

I piled up three fishcakes in a sort of triangle the middle of the plate, then sort of dolloped the pea puree on top, and then on top of that, a slice of lemon to squeeze.

If you have a go, enjoy!

2 comments:

mrspao said...

They sound yummy. Fishcakes are a real comfort food!

VintagePretty said...

That reminds me that I haven't made a fishcake for ages. I love salmon, too, so I'll give your recipe a go, it sounds delish!