I am a person who likes to follow a recipe. I am not a freestyler. But I make an exception for David Niven. I love his fish cakes recipe, because he basically issues a carte blanche for making them however the hell you like.

So here’s his recipe, just as he wrote it…

Take any old piece of left over fish (the better the fish the better the cake).

Mix it up with boiled potatoes.  Pop in a raw egg to bind it and a little anchovy paste because I say so.

Add a chopped onion just for the hell of it, then make little cakes of this shambles.

Sprinkle some flour around the general area of the cakes and park some bread crumbs atop them.

FRY IN DEEP FAT.

Here’s how I made mine.

I had a small tupperware of leftover mash knocking around in my fridge. I added a can of this, which I am never without in my kitchen…

I popped in some chopped red onion, a beaten egg and a big squeeze of this, as I didn’t have any anchovy paste.

Mashed it all up.

Made 5 little cakes,

dusted them with flour, dipped them in breadcrumbs, fried them in a mixture of butter and olive oil,

steamed some broccoli and Bob’s your uncle. A really quick and easy dinner for 2 nights in at Silver Screen Suppers Towers.

Two fishcakes one night, three the next. I was VERY pleased with myself.

Back to following the recipes religiously now though…

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