Feb 16, 2016, Updated Oct 04, 2023 I feel so blessed to have a lovely, multi-cultural family. It makes life and food so much more exciting and colourful. It’s been several months since she was here, so I went by memory – I can’t remember if her version uses dry spices. I included turmeric, which has a wonderfully bright colour and bitter-citrusy flavour, and cayenne. I’m pretty sure she uses more oil, and fries them a deeper brown. The cakes are bound together with an egg, but are still quite fragile. I recommend chilling them in the fridge for an hour before cooking (or even before breading, if you’re finding the mixture too soft). I fried the fish cakes in ghee (clarified butter), because I keep some in my pantry, and also because yum. I had some leftover potato from another meal, but don’t use leftover mashed potato if it has milk or cream added – it will be too wet. To quickly cook a potato, prick the skin with a fork and microwave on high heat for 6 minutes or until tender, flipping once halfway through. Let cool, then remove skin and mash. Or, of course, just boil it (but why bother with a peeler, and then dirty another pan?). This makes a super quick dinner or weekend lunch. You can substitute 6 ounces of any leftover fish in place of the canned tuna, and feel free to omit any of the ingredients that you don’t have on hand – they’ll still be yummy (even if it comes back down to just fish and potatoes). And they freeze really well (pre-frying), so go ahead and double the batch. Thaw in fridge before frying. Serve with ketchup and/or mayo for dipping.
