From ‘Made at Home: Curing & Smoking’ by Dick & James Strawbridge
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1kg new potatoes
150g smoked salmon, roughly chopped
4 spring onions, roughly sliced
2 fresh red chillies, chopped into rings, seeds and all
100g pitted black or green olives, roughly chopped
1 tbsp capers, roughly chopped
Half a beaten egg
3 tbsp roughly chopped fresh coriander
Juice and zest of half a lime
2 tbsp plain flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
For the lime mayonnaise
Juice and zest of half a lime
1 garlic clove, crushed
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
To serve: sweet chilli dipping sauce
Method:
1. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add the potatoes. Cook until tender, then crush roughly, leaving some small chunks and some larger ones. Set aside to cool.
2. Put the potatoes, salmon, spring onions, chillies, olives, capers, egg and coriander into a large bowl. Add the lime zest and juice and mix thoroughly. Sprinkle the flour over and mix it in. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Take handfuls of the mixture, form them into balls, and place them on a baking sheet.
4. They can be kept for several hours in the fridge at this stage if necessary.
5. Heat a good splash of extra virgin olive oil in your frying pan. Add your balls of fish mixture, spacing generously. Once you have your panful, gently press the balls flat with a fish slice or spatula.
6. Give the pan a gentle shake to make sure the fishcakes have not stuck, then leave them until the first side is golden brown – about 5 minutes, depending on the heat. Turn carefully and cook the other side.
7. To make the lime mayonnaise, mix together all the ingredients in a small bowl. Serve the fishcakes with a green salad, the lime mayonnaise and a sweet chilli dipping sauce.
La Femme:
While absolutely delicious there is no getting away from the fact that this dish is fiddly. I did a batch cook of 3x and I was a little fatigued by it all at the end. For one of the batches I coated them in panko which made them a little easier to handle. On the plus side I had planned to feed 8 ladies at a wine lunch and 4 of us at home with those increased quantities but in fact I fed 2 wine lunches (so 16 ladies) and the family with some to spare in the freezer (they froze well). I suspect Dick and James were thinking of 4 VERY hungry fishermen for this recipe!
Wine Matching:
We tasted a barrel-fermented Chenin Blanc, Villiera, from Jeff Grier for Marks & Spencer (MYR99) and a Pouilly-Fume from Tesco Finest Range (MYR79). The acidity and the smokiness in both wines worked really well with the fishcakes. They are pretty flavoursome as I am sure you can see from the ingredients list so the Chateau Unang Rose worked very well too. Delicious lunch, thanks Dick and James!
Le Vin:
1 Comment
Reminiscent of the “salmon croquettes” my mom used to make when I was a kid, but with a different taste, I’m sure, with the addition of potatoes, lime, and red chilies. Sounds delish. Thank you.