An homage to A A Gill

In December 2016 we lost the food and travel writer, A.A. Gill to cancer. I will always be grateful to him for his outstanding book “The Ivy The Restaurant and its Recipes by AA Gill”.

By way of a tribute to the late Mr. Gill and The Ivy in a class recently I made “The Ivy Fishcakes” – the best recipe for fishcakes I've ever used and put the fishcakes together with the Coronation Coleslaw.

I'm not going to repeat the coleslaw recipe – here are the fishcakes :

The Ivy Fishcakes

(makes 8 – freeze what you don't use)

800g dry mashed potato – no cream or butter added

650g salmon fillet poached in fish stock and flaked

2 tbsp tomato ketchup

2 tsp anchovy essence

3 tsp English mustard

salt and black pepper

plain flour for coating

Mix together the potato, half the salmon, ketchup, anchovy essence, mustard and seasoning until smoother. Fold in the rest of the salmon. Mould the mixture into 8 round cakes and fridge.

When you're ready to serve pre-heat the oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6y. Lightly flour the fishcakes and fry them until they are coloured on both sides. Bake for 10/15 minutes.

I'd like to think that I only recommend kit that I know is worth the dosh and, more to the point, has a useful purpose – in other words it will not find its way to that happy hunting ground for cast aside useless and expensive dusty kitchen stuff in the sky. Say hello to the ricer – you don't have to spend a fortune – price range from £4 to £40 and all points in between.

Here's a photo of mine and one of the fishcake with the slaw too.

                                      

P.s. In the book the fishcakes are served with a sorrel sauce but you could serve them with Alfredo sauce or tartare sauce and scale up or down – smaller for a starter and as per the recipe as part of a main course. I should mention that this book is now difficult to get hold of unless you're prepared to pay a King's ransom!