Fish cakes with salad

This is a cross between my Mum’s fish cake recipe and one from Good Food 

Dill fish cakes, with summer salad

Serves 5-8 (makes 8 cakes, can be frozen)

Preparation: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Cost: £11-£13 depending on the choice of fish (£1.38 to £1.63 per fish cake)

800g fish of your choice, skin removed (try salmon, haddock etc.)

2 bay leaves

dill, fresh bunch chopped or 2 tsp dried

500ml milk (I use oat milk as a cows milk substitute)

600g potatoes, peeled and chopped

Zest of 1 lemon

4 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tsp Dijon mustard

4 tbsp capers, rinsed and dried

a little flour for dusting hands

1 egg, beaten

100g breadcrumbs (about 4 slices)

4 tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil

1 lemon cut into wedges

Salad for serving

If you are using fresh bread for your breadcrumbs, lay them out 12-24 hours before you need them to go stale. Then whizz the slices in a food processor.

Poach the fish: place the fish in a frying pan, cover with milk, add the bay leaves and dill. Bring to the boil, then allow to simmer for 4 minutes. Turn off the heat, but leave the fish in the pan for another 5 minutes. Then lift out the fish onto a plate and flake it into large pieces with a fork. Allow to cool.

Boil the potatoes until tender (about 10 minutes). Drain, return the potatoes to their pan and then leave to steam for 2 minutes (this dries out the potato). Add a knob of butter or margarine to the potatoes, return the pan to the heat, and mash. Add in the zest, mayonnaise, mustard, capers and seasoning.

Carefully add the fish to the mash. Mix gently with your hands until just combined (too much mixing will crumble the fish). Dust your hands and the worktop, separate the mix into 8 portions, and shape into rounds. Flatten until 2.5cm thick. Finally dip the cakes into the egg and press into the breadcrumbs until covered all over.

To cook the cakes fry in a very hot pan in the oil for 5 minutes each side until golden. This may need to be done in batches unless you have a very large frying pan or griddle.

At this stage the cakes can be frozen or refrigerated until needed. I have never left them in the fridge for more than 24 hours, and as it is fish (albeit cooked) I would not recommend leaving them in the fridge too long before using. If you are at all concerned cook and eat them straightaway.

Serve with salad and lemon wedges.

N.B. The cost of the meal is calculated on the day that this blog entry was published, using Sainsbury's online groceries as a reference for pricing. Each item is costed by weight used not by the total cost of a bottle/packet of that product.

Thanks for stopping by,

Rose

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