Fish or crab cakes always make a great appetizer at parties. Pair them with a homemade tartar sauce or an aioli, and you can be sure they’ll be gone in no time! They’re pretty easy to make too. If you don’t want to pre-cook fish, you can just use canned fish, like tuna or salmon. I just happened to have 2 cans of mackerel, so I made mackerel cakes.

I swapped the usual classic fish cake ingredients for chillies, turmeric, cumin and coriander, to make spicy cakes that are so incredibly flavourful that you don’t even really need a dip! Most recipes will call for a panko crumb coating. I didn’t have panko or any kind of bread crumbs, but I had dessicated coconut, so I went with that instead. They turned out great (and I saved myself a trip to the supermarket)!

Trust me, these fish cakes are so delicious you won’t be able to stop eating them! If you love seafood cakes, give these Cod and Prawn Cakes a try too!

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SPICY FISH CAKES

Makes 14 cakes

Ingredients:

500g canned fish, drained, skin & bones removed
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup (loosely packed) cilantro, chopped
3 bird’s eye chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
1 teaspoon curry powder (I used this fish curry powder)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
3/4 teaspoon coriander powder
1-1/2 teaspoons salt (or to taste; some canned fish already contains salt)
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 Russet potatoes, boiled, peeled and mashed
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups dessicated (unsweetened) coconut
oil for frying

Method:

1. Heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan over medium high heat. Saute the onions and garlic for a few minutes until softened/fragrant. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. In a shallow bowl, whisk the eggs. In another shallow bowl, place the dessicated coconut. Set both aside.

3. Place the fish in a large bowl and using a fork, break it into small pieces.

4. Add the fried onions and garlic, cilantro, chillies, curry, turmeric, cumin and coriander, salt, pepper and the mashed potatoes. Mix well.

5. Using your hands, shape the mixture into patties (I measured out 1/2 cup mixture for each patty, which will yield about 14 fish cakes).

6. Dip each patty into the beaten egg, then coat with the dessicated coconut.

7. Heat up 2-3 tablespoons of oil in a pan over medium high heat. Fry the fish cakes for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, until browned. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate.

8. Repeat until all the fish cakes are done. Serve warm.