Hairy Bikers Salmon Fish Cakes Recipe

Eight big cakes come out of this Hairy Bikers salmon fish cakes recipe, from 800g of poached salmon, dry mash, dill, capers and lemon zest. With the hollandaise on, each cake comes to about 650 calories by my count, and the whole job takes me an hour and a quarter.

These are folded by hand so the salmon stays in pieces, which is why the headnote can promise them “full of juicy flakes of salmon”. Where most fishcakes bind with egg, these get mayonnaise and Dijon in the mash, with no egg until the coating.

Dry mash decides this recipe, which is why the book has you stand the pan over a low heat while you mash. Because wet potato plus wet fish turns to paste, and a cake that slumps in the pan is one whose mash never dried.

Hairy Bikers Salmon Fish Cakes Recipe

Author: Alex Saidani Cooking Method:Frying Cuisine:British Courses:Starter Dinner

Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 30 minutesCook time: 45 minutesRest time: minutesTotal time:1 hour 15 minutesServings:8 servingsCalories:650 kcal Best Season:Summer

Description

Salmon fillets poach for four minutes in milk with bay and dill stalks, then flake into large pieces and cool. Meanwhile Maris Pipers are boiled, dried off in the pan and mashed with lemon zest, dill fronds, mayonnaise, mustard, paprika and rinsed capers. After the fish is folded in, eight thick cakes are egged, crumbed with parsley and shallow fried, then a vinegar reduction becomes hollandaise.

Ingredients

For the fish cakes

• 800g skinless salmon fillets
• 2 bay leaves
• Small bunch of dill, stalks and fronds separated, fronds chopped
• 500ml whole milk
• 600g Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and chopped
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 4 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp paprika
• 4 tbsp salted capers, rinsed and dried
• Plain flour, for dusting your hands
• Handful of parsley, chopped
• 100g breadcrumbs
• 1 egg
• Vegetable oil, for shallow frying
• Sea salt and white pepper

For the hollandaise

• 225g butter
• 4 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 small shallot, finely chopped
• 10 black peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 large egg yolks
• Pinch of sea salt and pinch of caster sugar

Instructions

1. Poach the salmon: lay 800g skinless salmon fillets in a frying pan with 2 bay leaves and the dill stalks. Then pour over enough of the 500ml milk to cover, bring it to the boil and simmer gently for 4 minutes. Then turn off the heat and leave the fish in the milk for a couple of minutes more.
2. Flake and cool: lift the salmon onto a plate and flake it into large pieces with a fork. Then leave it to cool while you do the potatoes.
3. Make dry mash: boil 600g peeled Maris Piper pieces in salted water until tender, then drain well. Then leave them a couple of minutes, return them to the pan over a low heat and mash, letting the steam go without it catching.
4. Flavour the mash: stir in the zest of 1 lemon, the chopped dill fronds, 4 tbsp mayonnaise and 1 tsp Dijon mustard. Then add 1 tsp paprika and 4 tbsp rinsed salted capers, and season with salt and white pepper.
5. Fold and shape: pat the fish dry with kitchen paper and fold it through the mash by hand, keeping the flakes whole. Then flour your hands and shape the mix into 8 cakes about 2.5cm thick.
6. Coat and fry: mix a handful of chopped parsley into 100g breadcrumbs and beat 1 egg in a separate bowl. Then dip each cake in egg and press it into the crumbs. Then heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry a few at a time, 5 minutes a side until golden, keeping them warm.
7. Start the hollandaise: melt 225g butter slowly over a low heat and pour it into a jug. Then boil 4 tbsp white wine vinegar with 1 chopped shallot, 10 peppercorns and 1 bay leaf. Then reduce it for 1 to 2 minutes to about 2 tablespoons.
8. Finish and serve: whisk 3 egg yolks with a pinch of salt and sugar in a bowl over simmering water until pale. Then strain in the vinegar and whisk in the hot butter in a steady stream until thick and shiny. Then serve the fish cakes warm with the sauce.

FAQs

Why do my salmon fish cakes fall apart in the pan?

Wet mash is the usual cause, which the low heat above fixes, but British Classics has a second answer. In that book the shaped cakes go in the freezer for 20 minutes, or the fridge for 45, before they are coated. So if yours are soft after shaping, that trick works here too, and the egg and crumb coat then has something firm to hold.

What is in the British Classics fishcakes with parsley sauce?

Three fish instead of one, and the poaching milk is not wasted. In that version 250g each of cod and salmon poach with 100g of smoked haddock, which “brings a special flavour”. Then the milk becomes the sauce, as in their fish pie, and the cakes finish in a 200C oven after a short fry.

What are Dave’s mam’s killer fishcakes?

Dave’s mam made them with hake and a Cheddar sauce, and the name is a true story told in Mums Know Best. While the fishcakes cooked, three-year-old Dave gulped the key to his clockwork monkey and “had to have an operation to remove it”. As for the recipe, it is hake, golden breadcrumbs, “the bright orange ones”, and white pepper, which “tastes better in mash for some reason”.

And those same orange crumbs coat their home-made fish fingers in Mums Still Know Best, where a thick fillet is cut into four fat fingers.

Can I make salmon fish cakes ahead?

Shape and coat them, then they can wait, though only British Classics says for how long. In British Classics the coated cakes sit in the fridge “until you’re ready to cook, but use them within 24 hours”. And the mix itself I would not hold overnight, since the salmon flakes weep into the mash and you lose the dry texture.

What goes with salmon fish cakes, and can I skip the hollandaise?

Skip it if you like, because the cakes already carry capers, mustard and zest, so a wedge of lemon does the job. For a sharper plate their Thai fish cakes come with a cucumber, lime and fish sauce dip instead. And their kedgeree, from British Classics, is another fish supper worth knowing, though that one poaches its haddock in water.