Norfolk Crab & Sea Trout Fishcakes With English Asparagus and Tartare Sauce

If fish dishes are your favourite try these delicious Norfolk Crab and Sea Trout fishcakes – a creation Bedford Lodge Hotel & Spa’s Executive Chef James Fairchild is particularly fond of.

He said: “I really like this recipe – all the ingredients are coming in to season now so we have put it on our specials menu.

“Norfolk’s Cromer crab is famous throughout the country and geographically very close to us so it is an obvious choice to serve it at our award-winning Squires restaurant.

“It’s light, full of flavour and reminds me of being in Mexico last year, where I had crab cakes out on the waterfront in Cancun.

“When you make this dish ensure the potato is totally dry before binding the rest of the ingredients, and don’t let it get too waterlogged when boiling them because over cooking will turn them to pulp. Enjoy.”

Ingredientscrab-cake

Potatoes
250g/9oz small red-skinned potatoes
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil

Fishcakes
250g/9oz fresh trout, poached, flaked, bones removed
150g/5oz white crab meat
150g/5oz brown crab meat
1 tbsp good quality mayonnaise
handful fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
handful fresh dill, chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 tsp Dijon mustard
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil

Tartare Sauce
4 tbsp mayonnaise
4 small cornichons or gherkins, finely chopped
1 tbsp capers
handful fresh flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
½ lemon, juice only
1 tsp grated fresh horseradish
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve
1 large bunch of asparagus
1 tbsp olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

Preparation method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
  2. For the potatoes, boil the potatoes in a large pan of salted water for 15-20 minutes, or until tender. Drain, and then return to the saucepan.
  3. Crush the potatoes slightly with a fork, season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and drizzle over the oil. Tip into a roasting tin and roast in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until golden-brown and crisp.
  4. Meanwhile, for the fishcakes, combine the trout, white and brown crab meat, mayonnaise, parsley, dill, red chilli and Dijon mustard in a bowl. Season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
  5. Shape the mixture into cakes using your hands, and chill in the fridge until the potatoes are almost ready.
  6. For the tartare sauce, mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl and season to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Set aside.
  7. To cook the fishcakes, heat the oil a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Fry the fishcakes in the oil for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until golden-brown and crisp.
  8. For the asparagus, place the asparagus into a small frying pan over a medium heat and cook for 1-2 minutes, or until soft. Drizzle over the olive oil and season to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
  9. To serve, divide the fishcakes between two serving plates, place the asparagus on the side, and spoon the tartare sauce around the edge of the plate.