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Recipe

Fish Cakes Fried in Butter

home made fish cakes for the guys. everyone invited!

Butter, not oil. It burns sooner and it browns everything faster and it tastes better, and the way round that is simply to keep the heat at medium and not walk away.

The mix has to be cold and firm before it is shaped, which means the potato and the fish go in the fridge for an hour. Warm mix spreads in the pan and what you get is a fish pancake.

Flake the fish in big pieces. A fish cake you can see the fish in is a different thing from a fish cake made of paste.

Makes
11 or 12
Hands-on
40 minutes
Chill
1 hour, twice
Fat
Butter, medium heat

An hour of chilling before shaping and half an hour after. Everything else is quick.

Fish cakes frying in butter in a cast-iron panThree peppered ribeyes waiting in the skillet
Shot the night it was made. Open any picture for the full photograph.

What you need

The mix

  • 1 1/2 lb white fish, poached and flaked in large pieces
  • 1 1/2 lb floury potatoes, boiled, riced and cooled
  • 4 spring onions, sliced fine
  • 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
  • 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 egg yolk
  • Salt and plenty of black pepper

The coating

  • 1 cup flour
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2 cups dried breadcrumbs

The pan

  • 1 stick butter
  • 1 tbsp neutral oil, to raise the smoke point

How it goes

  1. 1 — Poach the fish gently and flake it big

    In barely simmering salted water or milk for six minutes, then drained and broken into large flakes with your fingers. Not a fork, and not small.

  2. 2 — Rice the potato and let it dry out

    Boiled, drained, put back in the hot dry pan for a minute to steam off, then pushed through a ricer. Wet potato means a mix that will not hold.

  3. 3 — Fold, do not stir

    Potato, fish, spring onion, parsley, mustard, zest and yolk folded together with a spatula in as few movements as possible. Stirring breaks the flakes up into paste.

  4. 4 — Chill the mix an hour before shaping

    Covered, in the fridge. Cold mix shapes cleanly and holds its round; warm mix slumps the moment it hits the pan.

  5. 5 — Shape, crumb, then chill again

    Pressed into thick rounds about three inches across, then flour, egg, crumbs. Back in the fridge for thirty minutes so the coating sets.

    pro tip — Double-crumb them — egg and crumbs twice — if you want the thick even gold coat in the picture.

  6. 6 — Butter and a little oil, medium heat

    Butter melted with a spoon of oil so it does not burn at once. Wait for the foam to subside before the cakes go in — that is water leaving, and until it has gone you are steaming not frying.

  7. 7 — Four minutes a side, crowded is fine

    They can touch. Crowding a pan matters for things releasing water; crumbed cakes in butter are happy packed in. Turn once, gently, with a fish slice.

  8. 8 — Onto a rack, salted, eaten hot

    Rack rather than paper so the bottoms stay crisp. Lemon on the side.

Made these for the guys. There were none left and nobody admitted anything. LFG.

More of what comes out of this kitchen on the food wall.

Every picture on this page is one of mine. I paint for a living the rest of the time — that is the gallery, and the originals are for sale.