Good fishcakes make a superb spring supper, there light enough if the weather is warm and also leave you room to enjoy dessert, besides using seasonal ingredients.

However, to make a good fishcakes you will need fresh organically farmed prepared fish (so ask you fish monger to prepare the fish for you if you do not want to do this), fresh potatoes (from your local farm shop), homemade fresh bread crumbs & plenty of fresh herbs from your herb garden, (have you planted your herbs, my seeds have grown really well in all this glorious weather we have had). You really want to be using dill & parsley or even tarragon. Then serve your home made fish cakes with a crispy fresh salad of your choice & lemon wedges.

You will need (to serve 4): 450g cooked salmon fillet, 450g cooked potatoes mashed, 25g butter melted (or 2 tblsp olive oil), 10ml wholegrain mustard, 15ml (which is 1 tblsp) each of chopped fresh dill & parsley (or tarragon), grated rind & juice of 1/2 lemon, 15g wholemeal flour, 1 egg lightly beaten, 150g breadcrumbs, 60ml rapeseed oil, sea salt, milled black pepper, salad of your choice & lemon wedges to serve.

First flake the salmon fillet, discarding any skin & bones. Put this in a bowl with mashed potato, melted butter, wholegrain mustard, and then mix well together. Stir in your herbs and the lemon rind & lemon juice, season to taste with black pepper & sea salt. Now divide your mixture in to 8 portions shaping each into a ball before flattening into a disc shape. Dip your fish cake first in the flour then the egg & then in the breadcrumbs. This is messy but make sure they are evening coated with the breadcrumbs. (This is one of those jobs which gets better with practice your first attempt may not be perfect but don’t worry after you have made the recipe a few times you will have coating in breadcrumbs off to a tee.)

Heat the oil in a frying pan until it is very hot, then fry the fish cakes in small batches until golden brown and crisp all over. Drain each batch on kitchen paper and keep hot. Then serve with your ready prepared salad & lemon wedges. You will never eat shop brought fish cakes again and you will also find people who didn’t like fish cakes before will suddenly like them, so give them a go and let me know how you get on.