How to Make the Best Homemade Fish Cakes

Fish cakes are a delicious snack and meal, with a crispy outside, tender, flaky, and moist inside. If you are craving delicious fish cakes, you can make delicious homemade fish cakes using a simple fish cake recipe.

Fish cakes have been around since around 4,000 years ago in ancient China. Today, there are many fish cake varieties, with every country and region having its variation. However, the classic fish cakes consisted of fish, eggs, potatoes, seasonings, bread crumbs, and onions.

Over the years, making homemade fish cakes has become an effective way to use leftover fish and potatoes, reducing food wastage. These days, you can find fish cakes even in luxurious restaurants with modern twists and variations of ingredients.

They are a great way to eat fish if you do not like its smell. The other ingredients help cover up the smell and most of the flavor, but you still get the nutrients. Fish cakes are also a great way to change up how you eat fish and a great way to use less fish to feed many people.

How to Make Fish Cakes

With so many fish cake variations, there are numerous fishcakes recipes around, but this is the best fish cake recipe that will teach you how to cook fish cake.

Ingredients

• 500 grams of skinless and boneless fish fillets
• Four tablespoons of unsalted butter
• ¼ teaspoon of black pepper
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 800 grams of potatoes
• Two finely minced garlic cloves
• Two large, finely chopped, and deseeded red chilies
• ½ cup of finely sliced green onion
• One tablespoon of chopped thyme leaves
• One tablespoon of parsley
• ¾ teaspoon of salt
• One cup of flour
• Two eggs
• 1 ¼ cup of panko breadcrumbs
• One cup of canola or vegetable oil

Directions

1. Bake your potatoes for 75 minutes over 220 degrees F or until they are not hard when you deep a knife in them.
2. Cut them in half and scoop the potato flesh into a clean medium bowl.
3. Season your fish with salt and pepper over a rack, heat butter over medium heat in a large skillet, and cook your fish for four minutes, repeatedly turning to avoid burning it. Cook the fish for four minutes or until it is just cooked inside but not golden brown.
4. Remove the fish and sauté your garlic, green onion, chili, and thyme in the same pan and leftover butter until the garlic turns brown.
5. Add the garlic and butter mixture into your potatoes and ensure you remove all the butter. This is an essential step in flavoring your fish cakes because the butter carries all the essential flavors.
6. Add some salt, pepper, and parsley, and roughly mash your potatoes.
7. After getting the right potato texture, add your fish with any juices collected in the bowl or tray.
8. Gently stir your fish into the mashed potatoes, and ensure not to break up the fish flakes too much. The big fish flakes in the final result add more texture.
9. Use a ¼ cup to scoop out the mashed potato and fish mixture, then pack it tightly into the cup. Pop-out the mixture onto your palm and firmly press it to make around 2/3 inches-thick fish cakes.
10. Coat the patties with flour first, ensuring you get all the surfaces, including the edges. Shake off the excess and dip the patty into the eggs, covering all the surfaces. Let the excess egg drip off and drop the fish cake into the panko breadcrumbs.
11. Pan-fry the fish cakes until they are golden brown on all sides. This takes around 1 ½ minutes, but ensure you don’t overcook them.
12. After the fish cakes are golden brown, transfer them to a tray lined with a paper towel to help absorb the excess oil.
13. Bake the fish cakes at 200 degrees F for 10 minutes. This helps warm up the middle of the fish cakes, which did not warm up after pan-frying. It also helps warm up the first batch you made.
14. Remove and serve while hot.

Recipe Tips

While this fish cakes recipe is easy and gives you the most delicious fish cakes, these tips will help you get the best results.

• Bake whole potatoes- While you might be tempted to boil peeled potato cubes, baking whole unpeeled potatoes is better for this fishcake recipe. The baked potatoes remain dry, and the flavor remains intact, unlike boiled potatoes, whose taste is diluted by the water.
• Avoid waxed potatoes- While waxed potatoes will have the same taste as all-rounder and starchy potatoes, they will have a different texture that is not as good. When you bake them, the waxy potatoes will not be as fluffy inside, making them thicker and denser when you mash them.
• Make the mashed potato and fish mixture as dry as possible- Many people might use the best fish cake recipe but deal with their mixture falling apart in the oil. This happens mostly if your mixture is too wet. If you use boiled potatoes, drain them thoroughly before making the mixture.
• Roughly mash your potatoes- When mashing your potatoes, do not go for a smooth mashed potato result. This is because the potatoes will become softer, making your fish cake soft and bay-food-like inside. Lumps in the potatoes give you some texture, which creates a perfect balance with the soft fish flakes.
• Cook your fish cakes in batches- When pan-frying the fish cakes, throw in a few at a time to make it easier for you to turn and for evenly cooked results.
• Have a thick coat of breadcrumbs- The thicker the layer of breadcrumbs and flour, the crispier the fish cakes will be. When adding the breadcrumbs, ensure you press them into the fish cake to avoid them falling off into the oil.

Storage and Reheating

While fish cakes are best eaten hot, you can store leftovers to eat later. You can also make them ahead if you are hosting people. Crumb and freeze them with baking or parchment paper between the layers to keep them from sticking together.

Thaw them overnight in your fridge, and when you want to serve them, pan fry them again and bake like in the original recipe until they are evenly hot, even on the inside.

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