Category: Starters

This makes a lovely starter, supper or light lunch, lots of fresh flavours and taste much better than the shop bought frozen fishcakes.

Ingredients

500g potatoes, cooked and mashed (but don’t over cook!)
200g smoked rainbow trout
rind of a large lemon, finely grated
30g parsley, finely chopped
2 eggs, whisked and in a bowl ready.
Plain flour for dusting
breadcrumbs, poured into a bowl and ready
2 or 2 tbs of oil for frying
salt and pepper to taste
salad and dressing to serve (I prefer a mango and chilli dressing with this)

Method

While the mashed potatoes are warm, but not hot, thoroughly mix in the chopped parsley, salt, pepper and lemon rind.
Once mixed flake in the fish, mix again, but dont over mix to the point of the fish being mushed up.
Grab a handful of the mixture, roll into a ball and flatten to about 10mm to 15mm thick. Put on a plate and then do the same with the rest of the mixture. I normally get about 8 fish cakes out of this amount of mixture, but it could be more or less depending on the size of your fish cakes.
Dust each side of the fish cakes with the flour, dip in the whisked egg and then dip in the breadcrumbs until covered. Put back on the plate.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the fish cakes for about 5 minutes either side, until nice and golden.

Serve with a salad and a dressing of your choice.

Tomato and basil soup, one of the family’s favourite.

Ingredients (4 servings)
2 400g tins of good quality chopped tomatoes
30g of fresh basil, chopped, stalks and all
1 garlic clove
1 tsp sugar
800ml good quality chicken stock
6 sun dried tomatoes (in olive oil)
Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Method
Add everything to the pan apart from half the basil and the sun dried tomatoes.
Bring to the boil and simmer gently for around 20mins.
Allow to cool a little and then blitz with a hand blender until smooth.
add the sun dried tomatoes and the rest of the basil and blitz again.

pour into bowls and enjoy with some nice bread

Something so fresh about Thai Fish Cakes with Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce. I will do my own sauce at some point, but for the minute I have just used shop bought stuff.

Ingredients
165g raw king prawns
300g cod loin (or any other firm white fish)
2 or 3 red chillies
2 or 3 spring onions
handful of corriander
1tsp Thai red curry paste
1tsp soy sauce
1tsp fish sauce
Oil for frying
Sweet Chilli Sauce and a salad for serving

Method
Blitz everything together in a food processor until reasonably smooth (but not a mush).
Pre-heat the a few table spoons of oil in a frying pan over a medium heat.
Take a good heaped table spoon at a time, put in the pan and flatten down to around 1cm thick – cook 3 or 4 at a time.
Cook for around 3 to 4 minutes a side until done.
Serve with the side salad and chilli sauce

Enjoy

This is one of my favourite starters – or even just something to spread on toast when I want something quick and easy.

Ingredients
2 or 3 smoked trout fillets (cooked), skinned and de-boned
200g soft cheese
juice and rind from half a lemon
heaped teaspoon of horseradish sauce
2 tbs chopped dill (with extra left for garnish)
Toast to serve

Method
Mix the lemon juice, rind, cream cheese, dill and horseradish until totally mixed.
Flake in the fish and again mix thoroughly.
Serve in ramekins, sprinkle the dill over the top along with some freshly ground black pepper.