Salmon fishcakes with spinach

I quite often knock out some salmon fishcakes for a quick and easy supper dish. I never use a recipe, just boil and mash some potatoes, fry up some chopped onions, and poach a piece of salmon fillet. Allow each to cool a bit. Mix in a bowl and adjust seasoning. Add a beaten egg for binding. Then I shape them into patties, dust with flour, fry ’em up and serve on a bed of dressed salad leaves. I had some spinach lurking in the fridge which was heading for its use-it-or-lose it time, so just as an experiment, I added some washed and chopped spinach leaves to the mix. You can see the mixture in the lower photo.

Result: nice. I’d do it again if I had the spinach to spare but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get spinach just for the fishcakes.

It’s so easy, I wondered what others had to say on the subject, in case I was missing anything, and here’s a selection of what I found.

I noticed that nearly everyone else coats their fishcakes with breadcrumbs before frying. Whereas I’ve found that a dusting of flour both sides is sufficient

Gordon Ramsay, in his Gordon Ramsay makes it easy book (p120) makes them in the same way as me, except that he includes a breadcrumb coating.

Would you believe it? This is what Delia Smith has to say about making salmon fishcakes:

The thing to remember here is that good-quality tinned salmon makes better fishcakes than fresh, so don’t be tempted to cook some salmon just for this.

If ever I needed a reminder of why I am NOT Delia, this is it! (She also recommends mashing the potatoes with an electric hand whisk. Cripes!)

BBC Good Food (not my favourite magazine, LOL!) had a version for salmon and dill fishcakes. Gee, what a cliché. (OK, the flavours do work well together, but sometimes it might be nice to have salmon without the obligatory dill.)

They also suggest that you can make them Thai:

Add finely chopped red chillies, sliced spring onions, finely grated fresh root ginger and coriander leaves to the mash. Serve with sweet chilli dipping sauce.

If that bears any relation to Thai food then I’m a bloody Chinaman. Where do they get their ideas from?

And finally, for those of you who like simple, straightforward and sensible recipes for quick and tasty food, there’s one on UKTV by Tamasin Day-Lewis.