Smoked haddock fishcakes with capers and lemon recipe

These tasty fishcakes really benefit from the salty punch from capers and fragrant lemon zest. Serve as they are for a starter or with a poached egg on top and some peas for a lovely week-night meal. Using un-dyed haddock is better if you can find it, but if you can’t get your hands on it dyed will do, it will just make the fishcakes more yellow! Also, any smoked white fish will work with this recipe, just don’t use anything oily, like salmon or mackerel.

Ingredients

• 200g potatoes, peeled and cut into pieces
• 25g butter
• 3tbsp olive oil
• 250g un-dyed smoked haddock
• 200ml milk
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 30g caper, drained and finely chopped
• 30g gherkins, drained and finely chopped
• 1 handful flat leaf parsley, chopped
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/350°F. Bring the potatoes to the boil and cook in salted water for 15 minutes or until ready to mash.
2. In a separate pan, add the milk, bay leaf and haddock, ensuring the fish is covered and poach on a medium heat for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp oil in a frying pan and cook the red onion until soft.
4. When the potatoes are cooked, drain and mash with the butter and a little salt and pepper to taste.
5. Place the onions, potatoes, capers, gherkins, parsley and lemon zest in a large bowl and mix well.
6. When the fish has cooled enough to handle, break into flakes and add these to the bowl, mix well.
7. When the mixture is cool enough to handle, make into medium sized fishcakes (about half the size of your palm).
8. Put the flour on a plate and coat each fishcake well. Heat the remaining oil in a large frying pan to a medium heat.
9. Add the fishcakes and fry for 3 minutes on each side to get colour before transferring to the oven for 10 minutes. Serve topped with a poached egg and some freshly cooked peas.