mustardy mackerel fishcakes

for many years my default recipe for fishcakes has featured salmon as the star ingredient. flaked poached salmon mixed with mash, lemon zest, spring onions and capers – a perfect combination.

at least that’s what i thought until i made these fantastic mustardy smoked mackerel fishcakes. and having had the salmon and mackerel versions on consecutive days this week, salmon has definitely been bumped off its pedestal.

mustardy mackerel fishcakes (makes 6-8)

500g potatoes, diced

225g peppered smoked mackerel,

grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 bunch spring onions, chopped

1 heaped tablespoon wholegrain mustard

polenta, for coating the fishcakes (optional)

cook the potatoes in a large pan of boiling water, until tender. drain and mash them.

remove the skin from the mackerel fillets and flake into bite-size pieces, removing any stray bones. add this to the potato plus the lemon zest and juice, spring onions and mustard. mix well and season to taste.

shape the mixture into fishcakes and coat them with polenta (pour some onto a plate to make this easy). cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.

heat the olive oil in a frying pan. when it is hot add the fishcakes and cook for c5 minutes on each side. the first time i made this we had it with spinach, more recently i made a green bean, beetroot, goats cheese and rocket salad.

these freeze well, just allow them to defrost before cooking them - oven-baking them for 30 mins at 180c, once they defrost, is best as they can be a little tricky to fry if they have been frozen!