A good fish cake is a joy, but a when it goes wrong there is nothing more disgusting. For years I had problems with tuna fish cakes. Yes, they were handy and cheap, but to be honest they weren’t really all that nice.

I’ve experimented quite a lot to get these just right. Along the way I’ve made some that had the texture (and sometimes the colour) of dry sand and were almost impossible to swallow, others that sat in a sad soggy pile that wouldn’t tempt anyone to even try swallowing them.

I’ve come to the conclusion that there are three main problems with most recipes:

1. Using too much mashed potato, or even using mashed potato at all. It makes them stodgy.
2. The common practice of dipping them in flour and/or breadcrumbs to cook. This adds nothing except even more stodginess.
3. Striving to make them low fat. It just doesn’t work.

Since I started eating low carb I no longer care about how much fat they contain but, if you do, be aware that these are great tuna cakes but they are not low fat ones! They are however relatively low carb - there is some potato, but it’s new potato and there’s not that much of it.

These are the same fish cakes as I had on the last day of the €50 challenge. All of the ingredients for this were bought from Lidl.

1 tin Nixe Tuna in brine
Half an onion, finely chopped
1 red Chili, finely chopped
2 scallions
1 oz of butter
1 heaped dessert spoon Crefee Garlic Cheese*
4 baby new potatoes, cooked and cooled.
1 medium egg
Black pepper

More butter or oil to fry the fish cakes.

* This particular cream cheese, which is a Lidl brand, is the one that works best for me, because it’s light textured and doesn’t add any heaviness.

Melt the butter in a pan over a medium heat. Fry the onion and chili gently for about 10 minutes. The onion should be soft and slightly brown.

Drain the tuna very well, squeezing it to get out as much of the brine as possible.

Put in a bowl and separate the flakes gently with a fork - do not mash it. When the onion is done, mix it and the chopped scallion into the tuna gently, again without mashing or overly breaking up the tuna.

Fold in the tablespoon of garlic cheese.

Crush the potatoes so that they are in small irregular chunks, but once again, do not mash. Fold them into the tuna. Season the mixture with a good amount of black pepper. You should end up with a loose mixture that looks something like the one above.

Now lightly beat the egg and mix it gently though. I think you know by now not to mash!!

Divide the mixture in four and form each portion into a ball in your hands, then flatten into a cake shape. Put the cakes into the fridge for an hour or so (longer is fine) to firm up before frying.

Fry in butter or olive oil (I prefer butter) over a medium heat. Be sure to allow them to fully fry on one side before turning them over, otherwise they can break up a little.

I like these with a little mayonnaise on the side, but you could also serve with sweet chili sauce or a tomato based dip.

Cost: Tuna 64c; cheese 20c; butter 12c; onion 5c; chili 20c; egg 15c; scallions 15c; potato 10c.

Total cost for 4 fish cakes is €1.61.

Tags: Fish, Recipes, Tuna
Posted in Recipes | 2 Comments »

This morning was one of those chaotic ones where it’s a surprise that breakfast even happens.

It did though and we had Cheese Omelette, made with 4 eggs and 120g or 4 oz of cheese - yes, it was very cheesy. I completely forgot to photograph it, but I think you know what a cheese omelette looks like. We also finished off the yogurt from yesterday, it was too good to resist, which means it was a relatively expensive breakfast compared to the last couple of days.

Cost: 4 eggs 54c; Cheese 76c; yogurt €1.20. Total: €2.50  - yikes!

The budget was saved somewhat by the fact that he was being taken out for lunch at work, which probably cost enough to feed us for at least half a week! Is that cheating? I don’t think so. I think if you’re on a tight budget you’re unlikely to turn up your nose at free food. And Gavin will be pleased that he at least got one decent meal this week!

I had tuna with radish and a couple of cos leaves on crisp bread, and a slice of Galia Melon.

I only ate half the tin of tuna, so will probably have the much the same tomorrow. This worked out quite a bit cheaper than I expected when I totted it up, it seems remarkable value to me for what was a pretty nice lunch.

I needed some turnip for dinner tonight and some chilis and beans for tomorrow,  so I took a trip over to Lidl in the afternoon to top up.

It was interesting. They are definitely responding to the Tesco price reductions and a good few items that I bought last time are cheaper now, if only by a few cent. Is this the start of a price war?

Also I can confirm what Alt_k9 said, organic courgettes are cheaper than ordinary ones at the moment, €1.45 as against €1.65 for about the same amount.

Anyway, this is my top up shopping basket:

All of which reduces the kitty to €6.90, with 4 days left. But I think that’s fine.

On to dinner, which was grilled gammon, sautéed cabbage with caramelised onions and turnip mash. Comfort food - simple but tasty.

Though you can just bung gammon under the grill and be ready to eat in minutes, I tend to give it a little love and attention first and it’s the better for it.

I find gammon - and not just Lidl’s - a bit overly salty, so before cooking it, I put it into a saucepan of cold water, bring it just to the boil, pour off the boiling water then rinse it in some cold water. I don’t know whether I’m commiting some heineous food safety sin by heating the gammon, without fully cooking it, like this, but I’ve been doing it for years and we’re all ok so far.

Once the gammon is drained, I brush both sides of the steaks with a mixture of seseme oil, a little soy sauce and a good pinch of ground cloves before grilling. Sometimes I’ll leave it to soak in for a while, anything from 10-30 minutes, sometime I’ll grill right away. The result isn’t some sort of odd chinese gammon, it just gives a pleasant edge to the flavour and means it browns nicely under the grill.

The cost for dinner breaks down as follows: Gammon €1.99; cabbage 33c; turnip 25c; onion 9c.

Turnip is such a good deal. I admit that occasionally when I’m in a hurry I buy Mash Direct’s mashed turnip. While it is very nice and very handy, the half turnip I used tonight made easily as much as is in a pack that costs around €2.30. Over €2 is quite a lot to pay just to avoid cutting up a turnip and throwing it into a saucepan of water.

In any case, to-day ended up the cheapest day so far, at €5.81, thanks to the free lunch!

Tags: Gammon, Prices, Tuna, Turnip, €50 Challenge
Posted in Shopping Baskets, €50 Challenge | 5 Comments »