Smoked Haddock and Salmon Fishcakes

These fishcakes can be made in two sizes: large to serve as a starter or fish course, or mini to serve as canapes or party nibbles with a tartar sauce dip.

Serves 5 or 6 as a starter or 30 canapes.

Fishcakes ingredients

700g    cooked mashed floury potatos such as Ukon Gold, Maris Piper or King Edward made without milk or butter

425g    skinned and boked smoked haddock fillets

200g    smoked salmon fillet  

35g      capers

1 tbs    Dijon Mustard 

1           Bayleaf

1tp        fresh thyme

1           crushed garlic clove   

25g      butter

4           lemons -1 for cooking and three to six halfs for serving milk

             handful of rough chopped flat-leaf parsley

             salt and pepper

 

Fishcake coating

tray of plain flour

tray of  2 whisked eggs

tray of breadcrumbs

a deep-fat fryer or frying pan

 

Creamed Anchovy Spinach ingredients

250g    spinach

3           chopped anchovy fillets

100ml  double cream

1 tbs     olive oil

25g       butter

              salt and pepper

 

Fishcakes method

Place the haddock fillets into a saucepan with the bay leaf, garlic and thyme. Cover with cold milk and bring to the boil then remove from the heat and allow to cool for about ten minutes.

Score the salmon skin and season with salt and pepper. Deep fry this skin side down in the butter and a little oil, and whilst doing this season the belly with salt and pepper. After about three and a half minuted carefully turn the salmon over and fry the belly for another minute and a half. The middle of the fillet should only just be cooked and slightly pink. Remove from the heat and allow to cool

De-skin the salmon then flake both fish into a bowl keeping it in chunky pieces.

In another bowl mix the cooled mash potatoes with the capers, parsley, mustard and a little salt and pepper. Add to this the fish and gently mix together by hand, taking care to preserve the chunks whole.

For large fiscakes divide the mixture into six, for canapes about thirty, and shape into round, flat patties. Chill to firm them up.

Next coat the fiscakes all over in flour, then beaten eggs, and follwed by breadcrumbs.

Deep fry in oil at 160C for seven to eight minurtes until golden brown. Place on kitchen towel to absorb excess fat.

At this point the fishcakes could be frozen for use another time, but make sure they are de-frosted before frying.

 

Creamed anchovy spinach method

Heat a pan with 25g of butter and 1 tbs oil and fry the chopped anchovies for a minute or so. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and the spinach, and fry for about a minute until it just begins to wilt. Add the cream and simmer for about two minutes.

To serve the large fiscakes, place some of the anchovy spinach in the centre of a plate and surround this with the creme sauce. Lean a fishcake on the side of the spinach and serve with half a lemon.

Fish Soup

Ingredients

650g Diced Fish (Finished Soup)           

100g Butter

1kg Whole fish meat (for soup)            

100g Plain Flour     

Pinch of Saffron (marinade in fish meat)             

1 teaspoon Dried chilli flakes

300g Diced Carrot  

400ml White wine 

300g Diced white onion

1 teaspoon Mace

300g Diced Celery

50g Tomato puree 

15g Sliced Garlic    

1 teaspoon Paprika

23L Fish Stock        

Juice of 2 lemons

150ml Veg Oil        

20g Tarragon

 

Method

Marinate whole fillet of fish in the saffron for 1 hour

Heat oil & butter in a heavy bottomed pan

Fry diced vegetables in the hot oil & butter on a medium heat until soft (don’t colour)

Once vegetables are soft add saffron fish, fry until white and broken up

Add garlic, chilli flakes, paprika, mace, tomato puree, fry until flavour is evenly mixed throughout the dish

Add flour and cook out

De-glaze in white wine, reduce by half

Add fish stock & bring to the boil, simmer for 10 min’s

Blend

Add salt, lemon, tarragon & add diced fish

Chill

Beef Carpaccio

The beef fillet is initially quite expensive, but it does not need to be used all at once, and as each serving uses just a small amount, the fillet goes a long way. The beauty of it is that you can keep it in the freezer and use it for a number of meals!

There are two methods of serving this dish, one of which requires a rotary slicer.

Serves 20

The Marinade Ingredients

700g fillet beef

200ml soy sauce

150ml balsamic vinegar

800 ml olive oil

1 heaped teaspoon black peppercorns

1 heaped teaspoon sea salt

2 bay leaves

1 handful / 20g thyme

1 handful / 20g flat parsley

1 whole unpeeled garlic bulb, cut in half through cloves

 

The dressing – quantities per portion

10g diced shallot

1 thinly sliced radish

10 leafs of flat parsley with stalks removed

1 sprig of fresh thyme with the leafs stripped off

1 tbs rice wine vinegar

2 tbs olive oil

1tbs of the meat marinade

Five thin slices of goat’s cheese

Salt and pepper

Put all the above in to a bowl and mix together. This can be done a few hours in advance if kept chilled.

Method

Trim off any excess fat off the meat, roll and tie the meat up with string so that it retains its shape throughout the marinade. (You can always ask your butcher to do this for you).

To make the marinade put the balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, thyme, flat leaf parsley, salt and peppercorns, garlic bulb halves, bay leaves and oil into a large bowl and stir all the ingredients together.

Place the tied meat in a container and pour the marinade over the top, stir it all together ensuring the meat is covered by the marinade. Place in a fridge for 4 days, turning the meat once a day to ensure the meat is cured evenly.

After four days remove the meat from the marinade and take off the string. Now wrap the meat in Clingfilm and roll it up tightly.

Method if using a rotary slicer

Pop the Carpaccio into a freezer and leave until frozen solid. The rotary slicer will be used to slice the meat whilst it is still frozen. In this way you can cut as many or as few slices as required and return the rest to the freezer for another occasion.

At least half an hour before serving set the rotary slicer to produce very thin cuts of around three or four millimetres. As the slices are so thin, they will thaw out at room temperature in just a few minutes. Return any unused meat to the freezer for another time.

Method if slicing by hand

After wrapping the meat in Clingfilm place it in a refrigerator to chill.

When ready to serve, use a sharp knife to slice the meat as thinly as possible. When you have cut enough slices, the rest can be wrapped tightly in Clingfilm again and frozen for use another time.

Serving

Cut five slices per person and arrange them on a plate in a circle with each slice overlapping. Just before serving, into the centre spoon the dressing and then drizzle some oil / vinegar mixture over the meat. Finally place the goat’s cheese slices on top.

Prune and Almond Tart

Serves 12 

Ingredients 

Pastry

125g     butter

250g     plain flour

              pinch of butter

100ml  water

Filling

400g  pre-soaked prunes

30g    flaked almonds

170g  butter

170g  caster sugar

85g    ground almonds

85g    self-raising flour

 2 eggs and one yolk, lightly whisked

500g  mascapone

1         vanilla pod

½        lemon

40g    sugar

About 70 raspberries (a mix of yellow and red if available)

 

one 10 inch (25cm) pastry tin

parchment paper to cover the pastry

beans / stones for blind-baking the pastry

 

Method

Put the butter, flour and salt into a magimix (or mix by hand) and pulse until breadcrumblike lumps form; add water a little at a time until you can see them starting to form at the bottom. Plave the mixture onto a floured surface and kneed to a smooth firm dough. You can use the dough immediately but it is better if you rest it for 15 minutes.

Roll pastry out onto a floured surface, until 3mm thick, flour a quiche tin, fold the rolled pastry over a rolling pin and very carefully place it over the top of the quiche tin, gently work the pastry into the corners, lifting up the loose overlapping pastry from around the sides to avoid tearing the pastry. Gently push the pastry into the mould of the tin, until it fits snugly. Leave the spare pastry overlapping the sides. Make a few fork marks in the pastry, and place in a fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

To blind-bake the pastry, place some parchment paper over the tin and place the baking beans/stones on top of the paper and pastry. Bake in the oven at 190 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes, take out, remove the paper and baking beans/stones, and egg wash the pastry and pop back into the oven for another 5 minutes.