As the Coley recipe suggested, I'm a big fan of Clive Miller on Coventry Market. I was really buying veg, but had a bit of a hankering for comfort food and purchased a small smoked haddock fillet. Natural in this case means without colourants.
Ingredients
Small smoked fish fillet
Butter
Cream (optional)
Milk
1 egg
Breadcrumbs
6 small potatoes
Three spring onions
Peel and boil the potatoes until they're ready for mashing. Broadly, this means they fall off a fork if you prong them and they're starting to crumble. Drain and mash the potatoes. Add finely chopped spring onions.
Whilst the potatoes are boiling you've time to prepare the fish. I deboned and pulled the black skin off the fish before putting it into a small frying pan with a knob of butter and enough milk to cover the bottom of the pan. Season with black pepper to taste. The butter will stop the fish sticking as the milk reduces. It needs about four minutes on each side. The trick is for the milk to reduce as the fish cooks, leaving a delicious reduction to fold into the potatoes.
When the fish is cooked flake it and add it to the mash with the reduced milk and butter sauce. I added a little double cream at the stage because I had some in the fridge. Don't add too much or you'll not be able to form the fish cakes.
You don't need to breadcrumb the fish cakes, but I had a crust and an egg going spare. I zapped the crust in a food processor, although you can use a grater. Some like to bake the breadcrumbs to make them crunchy, but I think that comes with the frying anyway. Breadcrumbing is easy but messy - into the flour, then the egg, then the crumbs.
Your fish cakes are now ready for frying until golden on both sides.
I served with stir fried pak choi and peas in a cheddar cream sauce and finely cut chips.
If you want a bit more zing, finely chop a chilli (or use powder) and add to the pan when cooking the fish.
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