Fish cakes

There's a bit more preparation for this dish that makes it more suitable for when you have a bit of time and patience, but home-made fish cakes are delicious any time of year.

Quantities (as always) depend on how many people you want to feed, but I reckon on using two small tins of salmon (200g/8oz size) to feed four people. You then want enough potatoes to end up with somewhere between two and three times the amount of potato to salmon.

Boil the potatoes until mashable, and mash with an egg and a knob of butter. You want the mash to be fairly dry at this stage because it will get liquid from the fish, and you don't want it ending up sloppy.

Drain the salmon and remove any bones. Mash into the potatoes.

Where you go from here depends on taste. You can make the cakes plain (just potato and salmon) but we zing it up with the following: A bunch of spring onions (salad onions/green onions), a bunch of coriander (cilantro) and we used to include a couple of red chilis but nowadays found a tablespoon of pickled ginger instead adds a wonderful flavor. Chop everything very finely and mix in.

Form the mixture into patties, flour, and fry until the outside turns golden. This is where you don't want the mixture too moist or the cakes will collapse when you try to turn them in the pan!

Serve with salad and relish.

A richer variation for a special treat, instead of canned salmon use some picked cooked crab meat and shrimp (in roughly equal quantities).