Simple fish cakes using up leftovers

Gosh, where have the last two days gone?  I've been meaning to write a post and then never got round to it as there was too much going on.  We had a lovely anniversary dinner on Friday and I'll write more on those recipes later this week - just to tickle your taste buds: we had gyoza dumplings with a dipping sauce, followed by sesame chicken...yum!

Anyway, it's been a busy few days which has meant that food had to be quick, especially at lunchtime.  And what better way to use some simple ingredients from the larder and some leftovers than to make some fish cakes?   

Crab cakes using leftover mash

We had some leftover mash potato which needed using up and was ideal for these.  For the sweet potato version, I quickly boiled and mashed one large potato - they seem to cook so much faster than "normal" potatoes.  The rest is really easy:  take a tin of crab meat or tuna, mix with the mash and add the spices/seasoning you would like.  I went for spicy cakes, using cumin, turmeric and a bit of chilli as well as some grated ginger and finely chopped spring onions.  Job done!  You can add a little beaten egg to bind everything together but I don't think it's strictly necessary.  Form the cakes and bake in a moderately hot oven on a baking sheet for ca. 25 minutes.  One tin of fish and 200g potato made seven smallish fish cakes.

Tuna sweet potato cakes

The great thing with these is that you can just use what you have - chuck in a bit of leftover sweetcorn, chop up a little bell pepper...whatever you have to hand.  Oh, and you can fry them if you prefer.

Serve with a simple salad or this easy yogurt dipping sauce - plain yogurt, coriander/cilantro and a bit of salt.  Oh, and if you don't like fish, you can make  vegetarian cakes by simply omitting the fish and adding a few more veggies.

Right, off to take the dog out for his morning walk and then I need to prep a cake - we have a very dear friend visiting for a few days and I think that calls for a sweet treat :-)