Salmon, Pea and Mint Fishcakes with homemade Tartar Sauce.
Lotte is a skilled and highly experienced broadcaster. Recognised as a leading authority on English cooking, she brings thirty years of food experience to her television presenting, live stage hosting and compering with a light, friendly and humorous touch. Lotte is joining us at the Comber Earlies Food Festival on Saturday 24 June where she will be rustling up this delicious dish!
You can read more about Lotte here.
The Comber Earlies Food Festival is part of Taste Summer in Ards and North Down. To view the full programme, click here.
Serves 4
For the Fishcakes
450g Cold cooked salmon - cooled
275g Comber Early potatoes - cooked and in their skins - cool
50g cold cooked peas - cooled
1 tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons of chopped fresh mint
2 medium eggs - beaten
175g white breadcrumbs
4 tablespoons of olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper
Break the salmon up into bite-sized pieces.
Lightly mash/break up the potatoes with the peas in a mixing bowl - with a fork. Add the salmon, mix in the parsley and mint and season with salt and pepper.
Stir until all the ingredients are mixed well and thoroughly incorporated.
Divide the mixture into 8 and then shape into round, flat cakes. Place them on a plate, cover with clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours to firm up.
When you are ready to cook the fishcakes, preheat the oven to 150 fan.
Tip the bean eggs onto a large, flat bowl and spread out the crumbs on another. Dip the fishcakes in the egg, covering well and then into the breadcrumbs. it is really important that you make sure the cakes are well crumbed with no gaps.
Heat the oil in a large, non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Add the fishcakes, 4 at at time and fry them for 6 minute or so on each side until the are golden brown and piping hot in the middle. Drain on the kitchen paper and place in the oven to keep hot while you cook the remaining fishcakes.
Serve the fishcakes with a good dollop of tartar sauce and some oven roasted tomatoes and salad.
For the Tartar Sauce
2 medium hard boiled eggs - shelled
1 egg yolk
250 ml sunflower oil
50 ml extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon snipped fresh chives
2 tablespoons of chopped gherkin
2 tablespoons capers in brine - drained and chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
To make the tartar sauce. Carefully open the hard-boiled eggs, and remove the yolks. Place the hooks into a narrow-based pudding basin or bowl.
(A bowl with a smaller surface area means that you are not chasing a small amount of egg yolk around inside it, it is also easier to add the oil and less likely that the mayonnaise will curdle.)
Add the raw yolk to the cooked yolk and stir them together with a spoon. Add a little seasoning. Scrape the spoon and make sure all the egg yolk mix is back in the bowl.
Combine the sunflower and extra virgin olive oil in a jug.
Using an electric whisk, start whisking the egg yolks and add the oil very slowly, literally a drip at a time until you have poured half of it in. Now, still with the electric whisk running, pour the rest of the oil in, in a consistent thin stream. Be patient, don’t rush adding the oil otherwise you’ll curdle the mayonnaise.
If the mayonnaise gets a bit thick and hard to handle, add a teaspoon or two of vinegar from the measured amount. When all the oil is added, beat in the rest of the vinegar.
Finely chop the hard-boiled egg white and add it to the mayonnaise with the herbs, gherkins and capers.
Taste and season.