Fish Cakes Are Easy.

Easy peasy. Piece of cake. Simple as pie. Which is why I decided to make them for lunch the other day. With an ice cold beer. And what’s better than fish cakes? Spicy fish cakes! Because Cape Town thought it was Bombay that day, complete with mini monsoon and all and since I’d already been schvetzing like a mineworker, I thought ‘why not throw some spice in the mix?’ Spicy fish cakes. They came out alright, not bloody amazing, but good. I used angelfish, but hake probably would’ve been better. Simple hake, nothing wrong with it. Here’s how to do it…

What you need
300g white fish (SASSI green list, please)
zest of 1/2 lemon, finely chopped
3 green chillies, seeded and chopped finely
3 potatoes, medium sized
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, crushed
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
handful chopped coriander
1 egg
1 ice cold beer
flour
peanut oil

What to do
Put some cool music on. Then open the beer and take a big swig (duh). Look outside at the hot day and take another swig. Okay, you’re ready now.
Put the beer down, chop potatoes into small pieces and boil until soft. Remove and mash roughly in a mixing bowl.
Fry the fish on medium-high heat in a little butter until done (shouldn’t be translucent anywhere). Break into little pieces over potato mash.
Add the chilli, ginger, soy sauce, fish sauce, coriander and lemon zest. Mix well. Crack the egg in and mix well.
Drink some more beer.
Flour your hands well, then scoop a handful of the mix and shape into a ball. Sprinkle with flour and place on a flour-sprinkled board or plate. Squash gently until it makes a flat disc that resembles an ice hockey puck.
Repeat this until you’ve used all the mixture.
You can be fairly liberal with the flour, otherwise you might end up scraping fishcakes off the plate. You also might get sticky fish fingers, not the kind you eat but the kind you need to wash under warm water.
Heat a wide frying pan on medium-high and add some peanut oil, enough to cover the surface. Then place the hockey puc- er, fish cakes, into the pan and fry until golden brown on each side, then remove.

Serve with another beer and some dressed greens. Squeeze some lemon juice over the fish cakes and maybe enjoy with a bit of salsa verde or tartare sauce on the side. I just shoved mine down my throat before I could think of that, but if/when I make them again, I’ll sauce it up.