Melt-in-the-middle smoked mackerel fish cakes

I made some beautiful fish cakes last week based on Jack Monroe’s recipe from the Guardian website http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jan/22/jack-monroe-smoked-mackerel-fishcakes-recipe Rather than flavouring mine with lemon and chilli, I added spring onions and a melt-in-the-middle cheddar cheese centre. Both ways are delicious- try them and let me know what you think.

It would also be easy to adapt this recipe, adding lemongrass, garlic and ginger to give the cakes a Thai feel. If you do this I would suggest making 12 little fishcakes rather than four large ones, frying them in a pan on the hob with a little vegetable oil, and having some sweet chilli sauce on hand for dipping.

Ingredients

• 500g potatoes, diced
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Salt and pepper
• 5 spring onions finely chopped (greens and all)
• 300g smoked mackerel
• 3 tbsp breadcrumbs (brown or white bread, doesn’t matter)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 100gms cheddar cheese cut into four cubes

Method

1. Put the oven on to heat at 200oC and get yourself a baking tray.
2. Put the potatoes into a saucepan of boiling water, then reduce the heat and simmer until tender.
3. Drain and mash with the lemon juice, butter and salt and pepper. Flake the fish into the mash, add the spring onions and mix well.
4. Shape the mixture into four large fishcakes. Press your thumb into the centre of each to make a dimple, add a cube of cheese then squash the mixture around it so that the cheese is completely contained.
5. At this stage you can put the cakes into the fridge to chill and firm up for 30 minutes, or you can just carry on- do whatever suits you and the time you have- I crumbed and cooked them straight away and they were fine.
6. When chilled or ready to cook, pour the oil on to a small plate and spread the breadcrumbs out on a slightly larger one. Dip each cake briefly into the oil on both sides then roll in the breadcrumbs to coat.
7. Place on the baking tray and bake for 30mins or until golden. I served them with purple sprouting broccoli, but a salad would work very nicely too.