Cod Fishcakes with Quick Tartare Sauce

Fishcakes are a great favourite in our home, my girls love eating them, but they also love getting involved with making them too; the joy of getting your hands messy is never boring for children and I love them getting cooking and teaching them basic cooking skills even aged 5 and 3. 

I've used smoked and unsmoked cod here, which is wonderful in fish cakes, and we had some leftover mash potato from the night before, which is invariably an invitation for us to make some fishcakes. 

Loads of different fish works well for different fishcakes - we love salmon, mackerel, tuna, crab and haddock but these cod ones are quite classic and appeal to a child's palate perfectly. 

The quick tartare is well worth the effort too and it's made from mostly store cupboard ingredients that you're likely to already have in stock.

Cod Fishcakes with Quick Tartare Sauce

Here's how:

Fishcakes:

• 200g mash potato 
• 400g cod
• 200g smoked cod
• 3 spring onions
• 2 tbsp chopped chives
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley 
• 1 tbsp creamed horseradish
• Zest of x1 lemon
• 2 eggs
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• Bowl full of breadcrumbs or panko

Quick Tartare:

• 150g mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp rinsed, capers
• 5 cornichons
• 1/2 tsp English mustard
• 1 tsp creamed horseradish
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley

Firstly, place the oven on to 180 degrees. 

Now in a large bowl place the mashed potato. 

Finely chop the chives and the parsley and add to the bowl.

Zest the lemon and add to the bowl.

Finely chop the spring onions and add to the bowl.

Now cut the fish into about 1cm pieces and add to the bowl. Season well with salt and black pepper.

Now prepare the bowls to pane the fishcakes once formed. In one bowl crack the eggs and beat.

In another bowl, add the flour and season again.

Finally place the breadcrumbs (I whizz up whatever bread I have indoors in my Nutribullet) into a third bowl.

Get a plate, tray or chopping board ready to place each of the fishcakes onto.

Now firstly mix all of the fishcake ingredients together gently with a wooden spoon.

Now get your hands in and grab a handful of the fishcake mixture. Squish it together and form a patty shape - like a burger. You don't want each fishcake to be much more than 2.5cm wide ideally and try to keep them as similar in size as you can so they cook at the same pace.

Once each fishcake is formed, firstly roll in the flour, then the egg, make sure the fishcake is wet all over and then roll in the breadcrumbs and place onto the plate or tray.

Repeat until all of the fishcake mixture has been used up and you have a set of 6-8 fishcakes.

Now add some vegetable oil to a large frying pan and place onto a medium heat. Grab an oven tray or dish and get it close by.

Place 2-3 fishcakes into the pan at once and allow to cook for about two minutes on each side until lightly golden and crisp, then turn over and do the same on the over side, then remove to the oven tray.

Repeat until all of the fishcakes have been fried and once they're all on the oven tray place that into the oven for ten minutes to ensure the fish is cooked through and the fishcakes are piping hot.

In the meantime, assemble the tartare sauce by adding the mayonnaise to a bowl, with the English mustard, creamed horseradish and lemon juice. Make sure the capers are thoroughly rinsed and add to the mayonnaise mixture, roughly chop the cornichons and the parsley and add to the mixture and stir through.

Once the fishcakes are cooked through serve with a simple salad and a spoonful of the tartare sauce. Enjoy!

Here are a few other fishcake recipes you might like:
Mexican Style Salmon Fishcakes
Thai Salmon Fishcakes with Quick Chilli Oil
Colcannon Mackerel Fishcakes
Spiced Tuna Fishcakes
Haddock Fishcakes
Lightly Spiced Salmon Fishcakes