There are two different types of fishcake in Yorkshire. One is the traditional one with mashed potato, fish and parsley, which is breadcrumbed or battered then fried. This is known as a ‘parsley cake’. What I call a real Yorkshire fishcake is two slices of potato with a piece of fish in the middle. Whenever I travel to Yorkshire by car to work, I call in at the Mermaid fish and chip shop in Morley, my home town, to get a piece of fish, a fishcake or two and a bag of chips. Seventh heaven!
When I was asked by Tetley to present a high tea at a catering competition, I thought of doing my favourite fishcakes, but I had to ask Norman, the owner of the Mermaid, how to make them. He came down to cook them himself, and we decided to follow them with traditional custard tarts (see page 00). All the other chefs there were laughing at our simple menu, but we had the last laugh when the queue outside our back door for a sample was the largest – and Tetley won as well!
ingredients
Serves 4
16 x 3mm (1/8 in) potato slices
450g (1 lb) fish fillet (cod or haddock)
plain flour for dusting
vegetable oil for deep-frying
Salt and vinegar batter
175g (6 oz) plain flour
2 tbsp salt
125ml (4 fl oz) water
150ml (5 fl oz) malt vinegar
METHOD
To make the batter, put the flour and salt in a bowl, and make a well in the centre. Add the water and vinegar and whisk until smooth. Leave to rest. Using a 6cm (2 1/2 in) ring, cut the potato slices into even sizes. Cut the fish into thin 55g (2 oz) pieces of a similar size. Dust the fish pieces lightly with flour and shake off the excess. Sandwich the pieces of fish between two pieces of potato. Dip the cakes
into flour and shake off the excess, then dip into the batter to cover well.
Heat the oil in a flat-bottomed pan to about 190C/375F. Carefully drop a fishcake into the hot fat and let it settle to the bottom. Add another couple of fishcakes if there is room. They will rise to the top when hot enough, about 5 minutes. Turn them over, then leave to cook for another 5 minutes until brown. Take out and drain well on kitchen paper. They’re better left for 5 minutes as they are too hot to eat straightaway, and they do need to drain very well. Serve hot with Tomato Ketchup and some Pease Pudding if you like (see pages 00 and 00), although I prefer just salt and vinegar.
PS - Even slices of potato look nicest, but this is not imperative. Just simple slices of potato as they come are fine. Whereas for ease, groundnut oil or vegetable oil would be the norm, in the north of England, lard or even dripping would add extra flavour. Haddock and cod would be the usual fish, but salmon makes a nice
fishcake as well.