My kids have gone off fish. Except if it’s super fresh, organic, tenderly steamed salmon (spoilt, I know)! This is fine to make once a week without completely breaking the bank, but I’d like them to eat seafood about 3-4 times a week. For various reasons: good quality protein, Omega 3 in the form of DHA and EPA in oily fish, zinc, potassium and many other essential nutrients. So I had to come up with something. And I did: The spicy fish cakes!
“Processed” fish works
I discovered that they like fish cakes or also pates better, possibly also because the fish is ground down to a very tender mass. There’s absolutely no risk of coming across a bone. The possibilities to change the basic recipe below and add your own ingredients are endless. Often I swap fresh salmon for some tinned wild salmon (again, question of price) or the much more affordable mackerel. There’s no way I get mackerel or sardines into my kids because of the bones. But mashed in with all the other ingredients, it’s okay.
If you’re not a fan of smoked fish (due to the bad press smoked produce has been getting), I totally get it. I rarely buy “supermarket smoked fish” but am very fortunate that the fish monger at my local food market smokes his own (sorry if that sounds slightly weird…). This means that I know exactly what he’s using and what the procedure is. And it simply tastes amazing!
What you need
What is crucial to make this recipe is to have a good quality blender that will blend the fish to a smooth mass. There are various methods of making these cakes but I’ve tried a few and use the one that I felt worked best and fastest. As you can see from the nutritional profile, you’ll have to add a side dish containing a bit more fat if you want to create a keto meal. Ideas are a big mixed salad with an olive oil dressing, broccoli with a creamy sauce or other buttered vegetables, for instance.
These spicy fish cakes also have the added benefit of lots of other brilliant nutrients from the spices and herbs. Go ahead and try it- if you need to, tone down the spices a bit for younger kids or add more for yourself. For the kids, I serve this with some tomato sauce (please no ketchup if you can…) and sweet potato fries that join the fish cakes in the oven! For the last 8 minutes, you can also add some broccoli sprinkled with sea salt and some butter. Yum!
As you can see in this photograph, I sometimes use my muffin tray to bake the fish cakes in.
Makes 6 spicy fish cakes (154g per serving)
Ingredients
Salmon, preferably wild, flesh only, raw (300g)
Prawns, frozen or cooked (150g)
Smoked Cod (150g)
2 Eggs, chicken, whole, whisked (114g)
50g Coconut cream (50g)
2 tbsp Fish sauce (36g)
2 tbsp Soy Sauce, (Tamari) (36g)
2 tsp Thai Green Curry Paste (24g)
2 tbsp Tahini paste (36g)
2 thumbs Ginger, grated (10g)
3 cloves Garlic, crushed (9g)
2 tbsp Coriander, fresh, finely chopped (8g)
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 170C/340F.
- Add the fish and prawns to the blender along with the eggs, coconut cream, fish sauce and soy sauce.
- Blend until you have a very smooth mass.
- In a separate bowl, mix all the other ingredients.
- Add the fish from the blender to the bowl with the spices and mix (I do this with my hands).
- Form 6 flat-ish fish cakes, put them onto a tray lined with baking paper and bake for about 25 minutes.
Nuritional values (as calculated in www.nutritics.com)
230kcal
Fat: 13.7g (20%)
Protein: 24.5g (49%)
Net Carbohydrates: 1.7g (1%)
Fibre: 0.9g
