Recipe: Fish Cakes and tartar sauce

I do want fish cakes

We sometimes feel a bit lazy and just want to put together a quick midweek dinner that's still tasty without being unhealthy. In the past, shop bought fish cakes and salad fit the bill perfectly but over time we lost interest in the packaged variety. Today being midweek (I'm writing this on a Wednesday) I thought I'd revive this old favourite but this time I wanted to create my own and serve it with a punchy tartar sauce that would put its jarred compadres to shame.

Fish Cake Ingredients

• 500g potato
• 500g fresh white fish (I used whiting)
• 400ml milk
• 100g bread crumbs
• 2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
• 2 eggs
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 3 spring onions, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

Tartar Sauce (light) Ingredients

• 200g creme fraiche
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 2 small pickles, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp capers
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp whole grain mustard
• 1 tsp horseradish sauce
• pinch of salt

Method

1. Peel and boil the potatoes until soft and mash. Allow to cool.
2. In a large frying pan, poach the fish in the milk for 5 minutes and set to one side to cool.
3. Once cool, remove the skin from the fish and any bones and flake the flesh.
4. Add the mashed potato, flaked fish, spring onion and lemon zest into a bowl and mix evenly.
5. Using your hands, mould the mixture into 6 evenly size cakes. They should be approximately 6cm in diameter and no more than 2cm thick.
6. Coat the cakes in egg and then breadcrumbs mixed with the chopped parsley and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. This allows the fish cakes to bind a little to prevent them from breaking up when cooked.
7. Heat 1cm deep of vegetable or sunflower oil in a frying pan. To ensure the oil is hot enough before cooking, drop in a small piece of bread and it should bubble a little and turn golden after a few seconds. Carefully add the fish cakes and cook on each side until even and golden in colour.
8. Remove the fish cakes from the pan onto kitchen towel to remove any excess oil.
9. Before serving, heat the cakes in the oven at 180C/Gas mark 4 for 12 to 15 minutes.
10. Prepare the tartar sauce by combining the ingredients into a bowl