Frame meat fish cakes

Recipe courtesy of Ahab

I had a story published in NZFN last year in which I described how to get extra meat from your fish frames. I usually use the fish mince I get to make fish cakes like these:

A few people have asked for the recipe, so here it is. It is adapted from Al Brown and Steve Logan's recipe for "Waikanae Crab Cakes", from their book Hunger for the Wild. A great book, I recommend you ask for it for Chrissie from the aunt who never knows what to get you. Or even better, Al Brown's Go Fish.

Ingredients:

Fish cakes

500g fish mince, recovered from filleted frames (see below)

1/4 cup of celery, finely chopped

1/2 cup of green capsicum, finely chopped

1 cup of onion, finely chopped

1/2 tablespoon garlic, finely minced

1/4 cup of Mayonaise (I use Bestfoods brand, or you can make your own)

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 cup breadcrumbs.

First, collect some fish mince. You do this by taking a filleted frame and scraping it with a teaspoon. You don't get a lot from a pannie, but if you're doing a few, it quickly builds up, you get a heap from larger fish:

You can freeze this in a ziplock, making sure you squeeze all the air out. Each time you get a fish, add the mince until you have enough for a batch of cakes.

Cooking method: (lifted more or less exactly from Hunger for the Wild)

Put the oil in a pan and then add the pepper, onion, celery and garlic, then cook on low until it's soft and the onion is clear. Set aside to cool.

Put the veges, fish mince, mayonnaise and lemon juice into a bowl, and mix together well. Then add breadcrumbs to firm up the mixture.

Shape the fishcakes to a size and shape you like. To do this, I use a paint scraper:

Then sprinkle more breadcrumbs over the cakes, flipping them to cover both sides. They should look like this:

Fry them quickly- three or four minutes on each side. Doesn't take long for fish mince to cook.

They go very well with tatare sauce. I make a b'stardised version with a base of Bestfoods mayo. Don't be stingy with the mayo, the sauce is so good that it will all get eaten. For five cakes like this, I'd probably use 1/3 of a small (400ml or so) jar.

Ingredients:

Sauce:

Mayo (Bestfoods or make your own)

2 or 3 gherkins, chopped fine

parsley chopped reasonably finely

a hard boiled egg, cooled and chopped fine

a shallot or half a red onion, chopped fine

a good squeeze of lemon juice.

Salt and pepper

Mix in a bowl, serve with lemon wedges.

Final thoughts:

 ?They go great if you add left over mashed potato
?A mate uses sundried tomatoes in his
?Don't overdo the breadcrumbs, as it can make them taste a bit bready. The breadcrumbs are just to firm the mixture up.
?There are all sorts of variations. I've beefed them up with diced carrots, diced courgette, they'd be great with corn etc.