Fancy Fishy Cakey Doo Dah!

Hello chums... I've had a few moments more than usual to fashion something fabulous for supper from the contents of my badly husbanded fridge. I used to love fish-cakes at school, one of the best days of any week would be made superb by the addition of fish-cakes for lunch or even better tea!

Your mum's fish cakes are always better than anyone else's - that is terrrue!

So I thought I'd have a go at making some. My only stipulation -is there shall be no spuds and no flour. Whenever I use plain flour in patty things - it ends up tasting a bit, well floury...

I just went with what I had in the cupboards - so if it feels a bit un-co. That's because it is.

No matter - soldier on my friends. To the recipe!




Ingredients List Starts Here:

1 leek (to be scrupulously honest it was 3/4 of a leek) - chopped finely
butter and oil (to cook leeks)
2 small salmon fillets - cooked and skinned and flaked
1 tin of tuna - well drained
A small handful of olives (cured black), chopped
2 x sun-dried tomatoes and a little oil, chopped
1 lime (zest of and juice of)
1/4 very ripe avocado (I'd say this is totally optional but did add some bindingness)

S&P

For making:

1 egg beaten
1/2 cup cous cous (or polenta whatever you've got)
2 - 4 dsrt spns oats (you can play with the mix and don't worry too much about the amounts)


Making:

Cook the leeks in a small amount of butter and oil until soft, but not taking on colour. Set these aside to cool a bit.

Whiz the cous cous and oats in a coffee grinder to make a finer flour. (You can bash in a pestle and mortar if you don't have a mini-whizzer).

In the meantime mix everything else together - and then add the leeks and the oil/butter from the pan. Mix well - you're going for a sticky mixture - not too wet, so make sure you drain the tuna well and keep an eye on the addition of the lime.

If it does feel a bit too wet - just add some of the cous cous/oats flour and mix it in.

Divide the mixture into 6 to 8. Wet you hands and roll each 1/8th into a ball.

Roll in the beaten egg and then roll in the flour mixture.

Pop on a plate and pat down into a fish cake shape.

Continue until you've made all of your fish cakes.

Put this lot in the fridge - this will help them keep their shape when you cook them, so an hour is good and longer is better.

When you are ready - heat some* oil in a deepish frying pan and cook the fish cakes for around 3 mins on each side, until they are crisp and golden. They should be warm and soft in the centre.

Serve:

I'd say 2 each for a light supper - but me and him are having all three so there!

I'm serving ours with shredded mange touts and blanched, spiralised courgette spaghetti with red, tomato pesto.

There may be some banana ice cream


*this really depends on your taste - I use Healthy Oil and or olive oil because that's what I like - but you can spray the pan, or use sunflower oil - chaque a son gōut!