Spiced fish cakes with sweet potato

We grew up on Sex and the City, a show of pure ecstasy and escapism, where the lead ladies seemed to have the best kind of lifestyle, one where they got to brunch a lot of the time. And boy did we devour the show (again and again)! We watched with our rose-tinted glasses of the unrealistic cosmopolitan life in your thirties, leisurely dining everyday, buying weekly Manolo Blahniks and living in beautiful brown stone apartment. This show started our big yearning for the Big Apple, a place where anything seemed possible- bottomless mimosa brunches, meeting interesting people, fun dates with hot/ troubled men, lazy afternoons eating cupcakes on a stoop, underground cool looking parties in alluring places like China Town- we were sold! Our first-time meeting, in our early twenties, was right out of the show- outside a coffee shop on a warm spring afternoon in the lower east side –coffee cups and a red velvet cupcake each in hand we sat on a stoop and immediately clicked amongst the pretty pink blossom and blaring down-town noises. We experienced a joint love affair of the city- devouring with great gusto every day. The brunch culture, in particular, opened our eyes up to what we had been missing, London at the time hadn’t quite cottoned on to this exciting breakfast and brunch scene- ‘greasy spoons’ were still pretty much the norm. we would meet half way between our places, somewhere on 2nd avenue and 1st street and walk, perhaps recounting and giggling about the night before, to our selected place. This has been on our minds from the get go setting up our restaurant (opening later in June), we have devoted the weekends there to brunch. A place, we hope, that will be a destination place come the weekend- where people can set out, maybe, by foot to be invited into a welcoming and relaxed atmosphere, to sit back and be well looked after whilst enjoying an array of tantalising dishes and drinks. Those New York brunch moments where everything that you crave and dream of ordering is on a menu- we want that experience and laid-back vibe at our place- noodles in a spicy, fragrant broth with charred sticky pork, garlic, herby mushrooms on a taleggio pizza with truffle, fish tacos with avocado and lime, Indian inspired baked eggs with homemade garlic flatbreads for mopping up- this is when we come to life buzzing with ideas. These fish cakes are our ideal kind of dish to make for a lazy Saturday brunch at home, so easy to make, delicious with an added limey yoghurt, wilted spinach a drizzly good hot sauce. We would also eat them for dinner and lunch with a salad and lemony mayonnaise. Reliving/ designing our love affair for weekend brunches at Wild by Tart has been evocating to those New York summer days secretly feeling a little Sex and the City.

INGREDIENTS

    ½ sweet potato, peeled, cubed and cooked in boiling water till tender.

    1 tbsp. coconut butter

    3 spring onions, finely chopped

    2 inch ginger, peeled and finely diced

    1 garlic. Minced

    2 limes- zest

    coriander small bunch, finely chopped. Stalks too.

    1 tsp. ground cumin

    1 tsp. turmeric

    1 tsp garam masala

    2 red chillies, finely chopped (we keep seeds)

    1 egg

    1 tbsp flour`

    300g smoked haddock- lightly steamed

     

INSTRUCTIONS

in a bowl add your cooked sweet potato, lightly crush with a fork and add the coconut butter to melt in. season generously.

Then mix in the spring onions, ginger, garlic, zest, coriander, spices and chilli. Taste to see if you want to adjust- potato mixture should be very flavoursome, fresh and punchy.

Then mix in the egg and flour. Then break in the smoked haddock, done over mix after this, so as not to break the fish up.

Leave to firm up for at least 30 minutes in the fridge, before forming your patties.

Heat some oil in a non-stick pan and fry the cakes in each side for 3-4 minutes until light browned.

Serve immediately with a poached egg, wilted lemony spinach and a zingy hot sauce.