Recipe: Five-step fish cakes
1st Jan 2015 Recipes
It's easy to pick up a pack of fishcakes at most supermarkets, but shop-bought aren’t a scratch on home-made.
With summer holidays fast approaching, this is a good recipe to have up your sleeve. Mixing and shaping fishcakes is a great kitchen activity to do with children.
What’s more, if you double the recipe then you can freeze half—so you’ve got a midweek meal ready to go. Serves 4.
Ingredients
- 600g potatoes
- 400g smoked, undyed haddock
- 2tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- ½ lemon, zested
- 1tsp ground pepper
- 1tsp mustard (optional)
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 4tbsp flour
- 150g breadcrumbs
- 25g butter
Method
- Peel the potatoes and cut them into small, even-sized chunks. Put them in a pan of boiling water with a good pinch of salt and cook for 10 minutes. Drain into a colander, and leave them steam-dry for a minute then tip into a mixing bowl and roughly mash.
- Meanwhile, put the smoked haddock into a deep frying pan or small saucepan. Pour over enough water so it’s just covered and then bring it to a simmer. Poach the fillets for 3–5 minutes. Drain, pull off any skin and then flake big chunks of the fish into the mixing bowl of mash.
- Add the parsley, lemon zest, pepper, mustard (optional) and 2–3tbsp of the beaten eggs to the mix. Use your hands o combine, but don’t overwork. The mixture should be robust—not sloppy. Divide mixture into six balls, and then flatten into thick burger patty shapes.
- Tip the remaining egg into one deep saucer or shallow bowl. Tip the flour into another, and breadcrumbs into a third. Work methodically—lightly coating each fishcake in flour, dusting off any excess. Next, dip them in the egg and then coat in breadcrumbs. Put the fishcakes on a lined tray, and then refrigerate for 20 minutes. (If you’re freezing fishcakes, do so at this point.)
- Heat the butter in a frying pan. When it starts to foam, swirl it round and then place the fish cakes in the pan (in batches, if needed). Leave them to cook for 5 minutes—without poking or moving them. Use a fish slice to confidently flip each one and cook for another 5 minutes. Serve with a dressed watercress salad and some mayonnaise.
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