In a way it’s odd that fish cakes (or fish burgers) aren’t really part of Mrs J’s food tradition, seeing as that tradition includes a lot of fish. And potatoes. The upside is that Mrs J isn’t tired of fish cakes. On the contrary, she’s just starting to discover the incredible variation of recipes out there. Here’s one that’s a bit spicy.

Using leftover cooked fish and potatoes is really perfect for this. Mrs J didn’t have any leftovers but she did have some bits of frozen salmon in the freezer.

If not already cooked, stick the fish in the microwave briefly, until just flaky. Get rid of any excess liquid from the cooking process and let cool.

Get about the same amount of potatoes, peeled and cooked. Mrs J used 300g of each. If you don’t have leftovers, cut the raw potatoes in smallish cubes to reduce the cooking time.

Drain the potatoes really well, you don’t want too much liquid in your mix later.

In the meantime you can drop all the other ingredients in your food processor: The juice of 1/2 lemon, 3 tbsp of tomato paste, 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic, 1 chopped red onion, 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp of black pepper, 1/2 tsp of sweet paprika and 1 tsp of salt.

Add the potatoes and 1 tbsp of flour. Mix, very briefly, ideally using a pulse function. Break up the fish a little before adding to the mix. Give it another pulse or two. You want the ingredients evenly distributed, not effectively disintegrated.

Mrs J suggests to use clean wet hands to create burgers from the mix. It’s going to be a bit sticky but all other methods take forever. Assuming you’re cooking because you do want to eat at some point, it’s the best way.

Turn the burgers in some flour, then dip in beaten egg, flour again and finally in some breadcrumbs.

Because the burgers can be quite loose, Mrs J suggests to put them on a baking sheet and cook at 200°C for about 20 minutes before grilling them instead of the other way around. This way chances are higher that they’ll stay in shape. And when the burgers come out of the oven they just need 2 min on each side to get some nice color.

Serve with a hot sauce or a hot ketchup. Maybe simply make your own by adding as much cayenne pepper as you dare to ordinary ketchup. It works for Mrs J. Put a good tomato salad on the side and you have a whole meal. Enjoy!