For my entire cooking and eating life I have been searching for the perfect fish cake. True, I have found them from time to time in certain restaurants, but I have never succeeded in making them at home to please myself, until today.
I detest fish cakes that are so filled with bindings (flour, crackers, potatoes) that you are left with an inflated stomach and just the faintest taste of fish. Bleah! I admit, I’ve been guilty of making these dough balls, but I didn’t like it. Today, after all these years, I produced the perfect fish cake. If you don’t believe me, make the recipe. After cooking and tasting one of the first batch, I quickly wrote down exactly what I did, otherwise, back to the drawing board 🙁
And really, if you are going to make the perfect fish cake, put that jar away and make homemade tartar sauce. It’s quick and easy.
Perfect Fish Cakes
1/2 cup cornichons, finely chopped
2 spring onions, finely chopped
5 drops Sriracha sauce
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 cup mayonnaise
Salt and pepper to taste
2 lbs fresh cod
1 lb potatoes, boiled and mashed
1 spring onion, chopped
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 tbsp flour plus extra for dusting
1 egg, beaten
Salt
Peanut oil
To make the tartar sauce, mix together the cornichons, onions, Sriracha, lemon juice, mustard, mayonnaise, salt and pepper, then refrigerate.
Steam the cod for about 10 minutes until it flakes, then mix with the potatoes, onion, parsley, flour, egg and salt. Form into cakes, dust with flour and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Fry the fish cakes in the peanut oil until brown and crusty. Serve with the tartar sauce.
Wine suggestion: Petit Chablis
I would eat this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Excellent idea!
I cannot even tell you how much I love a great fish cake, English or Thai 🙂 The fact you use only 1 TBSP of flour makes me very happy 🙂
Me too 🙂
drooling! no question it’s on my to-do list
…and yes please and thank you to the chablis ~
Thank you. The Chablis definitely worked 🙂
They look and sound delicious – especially the inclusion of sriracha 😉
Thank you Mad Dog 🙂
Yummy. Love the little kick.
Thank you Connie.
I’ll be trying this one! Great shots.
Hi Jon. Thank you. I’m also going to try this with crab cakes, decreasing the potatoes by half.
The perfect fishcake? Congratulations :D. They do look awfully good, Rosemary.
Absolutely perfect, Frugal.
This is a lovely idea for a lunch! nice and simple, I desperately need a good tartare sauce recipe too.. c
Glad you liked it c.
These look delicious! Guess what I’m making for dinner tonight? I’m off to pick up the cod right now.
Great! Bon Appetit!
Merci! Thank you for this fabulous recipe. It was a huge hit, and I’ll be linking back to your blog on my next post. The fish cakes were delicious and the tartar sauce extraordinary!
That is great!
Good for you! I feel the same way too and hate being left wondering where was the fish in the fishcake. It sounds like you got the proportions down perfectly. I also think the touch of sriracha is brilliant. As it letting the cakes rest in the fridge before pan-frying. Good tips to remember! Thank you!
PS. Have you tried the same proportions with crab or shrimp?
Thank you Daisy. I’m going to try crab, but will decrease the potatoes by half. We’ll see.
That sounds like a good plan. People call them binders, but sometimes I think they should be called what they are: cheap fillers.
And a woman wants a fishcake, not a potato or bread-cake with a little bit of fish in it!
Yeah!
Yumm. I agree about the tarter sauce…
The fish cakes sound terrific. Would you say the portion of two to one is the way to go if downsizing the recipe.
Hi Karen. It seems like 2 to 1 works. You taste the fish flakes. You could probably decrease the potatoes a bit more
Thank you Rosemary.
These are beautiful fish cakes. I have never used potato in mine before, I will be trying that techinique!
Thank you Tessa. Potato works well as long as the flour is kept to a minimum
I love this!! I agree, this sounds like the perfect combination.. right down to the sauce and the chablis!!
Thank you Smidge
Nice recipe, but is the crazy sauce with a demented Scrabble name?
Thanks Roger. No, the sauce is called tartar sauce in America. Not British?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartare_sauce
The fish cakes look delicious! At thirst I thought these were potatoe cakes.. they look so alike 🙂
Greets
Yum! I love this type of food! And tartar sauce is one of my favorites!
Thanks Villy.
I love when something I’ve not quite gotten before comes together. These do look perfect.
Now I’ve just got to work on my crab cakes 🙂
I too detest those flour and bread laden fish cakes. These look so delicious and great for a lunch, dinner or starters! Love the dash of Sriracha!
Thank you Karista
Nicely done. It erminds me of similar pettie that my mom used to make with vegetables. Very nice and healthy ingredients too.
Reblogged this on Bitter Heart.
What a coincidence I made a salmon version last Friday. Your recipe looks good
Thank you rs. I’ll try this with salmon next time.
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Ive just discovered your blog, and this looks fantastic! The small amount of flour is a major bonus for my family, as we are gluten intolerant, but that small amount can easily be replaced with rice flour or even potato starch. Excellent!
Thank you for following the blog!
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Hi. My husband is a meat lover so when I told him I’m going to make this for dinner he was so disappointed 😛 But we had agreed to eat more healthy so he tried them and after he finished his 2 fish cakes he asked me to make more for next week 🙂 Perfect!
I’m glad Su. You have to sneak the fish to those fish haters 🙂
Approximately how many fish cakes/ how many servings does this recipe make?
Hi Whitney. Makes about 12 fish cakes and can serve 4-6
I also love fish cakes and this recipe looks very delicious, I have to look for the sriracha sauce, I’ve never used it 🙂
Hi Katy. I’ve been a big fan of sriracha for years and it’s a cupboard staple. Just about any Asian supply store carries it and some supermarkets.
thank you, I’ll try this recipe for sure!
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