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Salmon Fish-Cakes

Last weekend's cheer-up-Tuesy charm offensive delivered its grand finale on Sunday evening. Stop me if I sound too boastful, but I was very happy with how this turned out - for an amateur cook, it's always exciting when a recipe really works, and there are few cooks more amateur than me...

Prepare your fish-cake mixture 2-3 hours before you plan to cook them (they take a little under half an hour to bake). To make enough fish-cakes for four people you will need:

900g maris piper potatoes
900f salmon fillets

Juice of 1 lemon

4tbsp mayonnaise

pinch of cayenne pepper

large pinch of chilli powder (more if you like spiciness)

2 tbsp of chopped herbs (I used flat flat-leaf parsley, but tarragon or basil will work just as well
2 tbsp chilli oil.

Peel the potatoes, chop them into quarters and boil them. Once boiled to softness, drain away the water, and return to heat for a couple of minutes to dry them out. Then mash 'em. With a masher.

While the spuds are boiling, put your salmon and half the lemon juice into a pan with a pint of cold water. Bring it just to the boil and leave to stand in the water for a few minutes. It'll cook just enough in the remaining heat. Then drain the salmon, peel off the skin and flake it. It's good not to mash it up too much - the fish-cakes are delicious if you can still feel the "meatiness" of the fish (you don't want them to be too smooth).

Mix the salmon with the mashed potatoes and add the spices and herbs, the lemon juice and the mayonnaise. Mix well and season with salt and pepper.

Now make your fish-cakes on a non-stick baking tray. I lined my tray with non-stick baking paper, which worked a treat. If you're good with your hands, you can pat the mixture into eight thick cakes (maybe 2cm deep). If you have a large round biscuit/cookie cutter, you can use that to get them into a nice shape. I used a non-stick heart-shaped fried egg shaper, meaning that my cakes looked like this:

Not too shabby. Put your tray of fish-cakes in the fridge for a couple of hours. This will firm them up ready to be baked. Once they're ready, drizzle the chilli oil on top and bake at 200 degrees centigrade or until they go brown and a bit crispy on the outside. I served these with mangetout and baby corn and a little rocket. You can serve them with whatever you like. Nobody's checking.

Spiced Tuna Steak

This weekend, since Tuesy needed cheering up I thought I'd be extra-organised and prepare a couple of seafood dishes. Since she doesn't eat meat but will happily indulge in piscicide, tuna is an excellent middle ground between veggie and carnivore. I'll save the other recipe, which I think was even better, for another day. I need to pace myself...

Get yourself some big, thick tuna steaks. As much as you can eat/afford. You're going to marinade them. To make the marinade, mix the following:

2 tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp grated fresh root ginger. You might want a bit more if you're a ginger fan.

1 peeled, crushed garlic clove.

1 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp chilli powder. Again, if you like at spicy, double this. It's quite safe.

Salt and pepper as desired.

Mix this lot up, and smear it all over your tuna steaks, which you've already patted dry with kitchen roll, right? Leave this to marinate for a couple of hours.

(A quick aside. I'm listening to the US Open tennis semi-final. Andy Murray might be about to beat Nadal. Please, please, please...)

OK, here's the master-stroke. You're going to make some raita. This is easy, and it's delicious. You need about 150g greek yoghurt (standard-sized tub), which you mix with some chopped mint and about 50g of chopped cucumber. Chop it fine. Mix this up and it will be a great taste to dollop on your spicy tuna and offset its kick.

Grab your favourite frying pan or griddle. Heat a little oil. Heat it a lot. Cook the tuna steaks for a couple of minutes and then turn and cook for a little more. I like mine scorched on the outside and still pink in the middle. Tuesy likes hers well done. The choice is yours, but the marinade will blacken it a little if you fry it for a long time. That's still delicious, though.

Serve your tina with the raita and a green salad. I made it this time with boiled potatoes and broccoil because we were really hungry, but the salad really prioritises the fleshy goodness of your steak. If you cooked it, bask in the appreciation. If it was served to you, feel lucky.

(Murray might be throwing the match away in the time it took me to write this. Dammit. But there's still a chance...)

Pasta Pesto

I'm really pressed for time. I've so much work to do I barely have time to whine about it. But I'm still managing to blog. Some things are still important, and it's a good way to focus the mind and arrange the swirling thoughts into some kind of comprehensible pattern. And I've been pressed into blogging on this by the water-cress pesto that Tuesy has sent me. I urge her to post the recipe so that you, dear reader, can make pesto for yourself. She's done the real work (and presumably she got chance to use her new food processor): I just want to show you the lovely dinner I made with the pesto.

All it took was a few slices of halloumi, that king of cheeses (shallow-fry it in a little olive oil, or grill it), rocket and cherry tomatoes. Oh, and pasta, of course. I've used tagliatelli, but only because the fuselli in my cupboard looks a bit old. If I had any penne in stock, I'd have used that.

Dead easy, and generous in its delivery of deliciousness. So, dear reader (and I hope the use of the singular form of "reader" is not too close to the truth), pester Tuesy with your requests for the pesto recipe, so that you too can pep up your pasty pasta.