May recipe: Fishcakes with asparagus

I was never terribly keen on fishcakes as a child. They mostly came pre-packaged and frozen, flattened discs of an indeterminate starchy substance powder-coated in fluorescent orange particles. Sometimes they were shaped like a child’s drawing of a fish, which presumably meant either that the manufacturer had just hired a new marketing manager with whimsical tendencies or needed a foolproof way of separating the fishcakes from the otherwise indistinguishable potato croquettes. I daresay it didn’t help that I once found half a beetle in one. Half a beetle, please note. I sincerely hope that the other half was still somewhere in a field and not in the previous forkful. So it is perhaps not surprising that I’d been cooking for a couple of decades before I finally learned to make proper fishcakes.

When I did, of course I wondered why it took me so long. They have been a fixture in my repertoire ever since, mainly cooked in spring or autumn when maincrop potatoes are available. Crushed new potatoes tend not to stick together in the same way as mashed maincrop potato does, so I don’t think new potatoes would bind properly, though I haven’t tried it to find out.

Here’s my recipe:

Fishcakes

Serves 2

8 oz (approx 250 g) assorted fish pieces, e.g. salmon, cod, haddock, smoked haddock, skate, according to taste and availability, skin and bones removed. If you have some left over from making a fish pie, that’s ideal.
8 oz (approx 250 g) maincrop potatoes
1 Tablespoon (approx) chopped fresh parsley, or about 1 teaspoon (1 x 5 ml spoon) dried parsley
Milk or cream to mix
Plain flour for coating

Peel, boil and mash the potatoes. Stir in some butter to taste if liked, but careful not to get the mash too sloppy or the fishcakes won’t bind.
Cut the fish into small pieces, about 0.25 inch (approx 0.5 cm) across. If the fish is already cooked, e.g. if it was left over from making a fish pie, flake it into pieces.
Mix the mashed potatoes, fish and chopped parsley in a bowl, and season with salt and black pepper. Add a teaspoon or two of milk or cream if needed to make it all stick together. The mixture should be firm but not sloppy.
Shape the mixture into four rounds (or any other shape you fancy) and flatten them to about 0.5 inch (approx 1 cm) thick.
Coat the rounds in plain flour.
Shallow-fry the fishcakes in cooking oil in a wok or frying pan over a medium heat for about 5 minutes until the underside is crisp and golden-brown, then carefully turn them over and fry another 5 minutes on the other side. The times are approximate, as it will depend on the heat, the thickness of the fishcakes, and the depth of the oil in the pan, so use your judgement.
Serve with mashed or new potatoes and salad or a green vegetable of your choice. I like them with asparagus.

May recipe: Plaice rolls with asparagus

Asparagus has been used in the kitchen at least since the 3rd century AD, when the Roman writer Apicius included it in his cookbook. Apparently it’s the source of the name of the amino acid asparagine. I never knew that, even though I used to be able to draw asparagine's chemical structure; there are some things they don’t cover in biochemistry courses.

May is the height of the asparagus season in Britain. We have a row in the garden, nicely mature now after being planted about 10 years ago, and as asparagus spears can grow at an amazing rate when the weather is warm, we have rather a lot of it at this time of year. Luckily there never seems to be a problem eating it all. I particularly like asparagus with delicate dishes, such as fish, omelettes and quiches. Here’s one fish dish that goes very well with asparagus and the first of the season’s Jersey new potatoes. If you don’t like or can’t get asparagus, substitute another vegetable of your choice or a green side salad. I imagine the rolls would work equally well with any thin white fish fillets, though I always use plaice.

Plaice rolls (serves 2)

2 plaice fillets
2-3 oz (approx 50-75 g) mushrooms
2 large spring onions
1 tablespoon (1 x 15 ml spoon) chopped fresh herbs of your choice, e.g. parsley, chervil, chives, tarragon (or dried herbs if fresh herbs aren’t available)

For the cheese sauce:
0.5 oz (approx 15 g) butter
0.5 tablespoon (0.5 x 15 ml spoon) flour
5 fluid oz (0.25 pint, or approx 140 ml) milk
1 oz cheese, grated, crumbled or chopped into small pieces. The only requirement is that it should melt in a reasonable time. I generally use an inexpensive medium Cheddar, but any hard or semi-hard cheese of your choice will do.

Chop the mushrooms and spring onions.
Fry gently in butter until softened.
Remove from the heat, stir in the herbs and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Spread half the mushroom and onion mixture on each plaice fillet, and roll each fillet up like a Swiss roll.
Put the plaice rolls in a buttered ovenproof dish.

To make the sauce:
Melt the butter in a small saucepan.
Remove from the heat and stir in the flour.
Gradually blend in the milk a little at a time, stirring thoroughly after each addition to remove the lumps. (Despite the dire warnings of school cookery teachers, a few lumps aren’t the end of the world, so don’t worry if your sauce isn’t perfectly smooth. As long as you don’t slosh in all the milk at once it should work well enough).
Return the pan to the heat and bring to the boil, stirring all the time. The sauce will thicken as it starts to boil. Reduce the heat, stir in the grated cheese, and simmer for a minute or so until the cheese has melted. Remove from heat and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Pour the cheese sauce over the plaice rolls.
Bake in a moderately hot oven, about 180 C, for 25-30 minutes until the plaice is cooked and the sauce is bubbling and just starting to brown.
Serve with asparagus (or other vegetable of your choice) or salad, and new potatoes or rice.