Thai-spiced salmon and potato fish cakes

Fishcakes! Yeah!

You could think of this as a left-overs dish - a tasty alternative to throwing mash and fish remains in the bin. I actually bought the stuff, though, for the purpose of fish cakes. I got a whole Baltic salmon for around 50 zl (10 quid) and made a very amateurish attempt at filleting it which resulted in too much flesh being left around the skeleton. I got 6 fillets out of the fish plus the skeleton so I decided to divide the cost of the fish by 7 to arrive at a costing for this recipe: 7.15 zl

I served 2 fishcakes per person plus salad side and yoghurt dressing as a light lunch and I can recommend you do the same!

Cost per fishcake: 0.94 zl (19 UK pence, 30 US cents)
Cost per person per meal: with salad, this would cost around 3 zl per person (60 UK pence)

What we need:

- 4-5 potatoes (skinned, boiled and mashed)
- salt
- the skeleton of a filleted fish (e.g. salmon in this case)
- a handful of finely chopped spring onion
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp coriander powder
- 1/4 tsp red chilli powder
- 1 green chilli (finely chopped)
- 1 inch ginger (finely grated)
- the zest of 1/2 lemon
- a good splash of fish and/or soy sauce
- flour for dusting

Let's go!

1. Prep the potatoes and boil up from cold water with 1 tsp salt. Should take 10-15 minutes. Check by passing a knife through. Drain off the water as soon as the potatoes are cooked. Set aside.

2. Meanwhile, make a simple steamer with a pan and a little water in the bottom of it with a sieve perched on top. Place the fish skeleton on the sieve. Cover and bring the water to the boil. When boiling, turn down to low-medium heat and steam till all the salmon has changed colour to light pink (around 15 mins). When done, leave uncovered for at least 10 minutes to cool.

3. Prep the flavourings

4. Mash the spuds!

5. Look at this fish! You'll need to carefully pull off the flesh from the bones and keep aside.

6. Mix all the potatoes, salmon and flavourings together in a bowl. Get your hands stuck in there! While you're mixing, you'll be able to pick out any rogue fish bones.

7. Form into balls and flatten slightly in your hand. Dust with flour.

8. Shallow fry in vegetable oil (Ooops - I forgot to take a photo!). And that's it! Serve however you like.

Cost:

- Salmon: 7.15 zl
- Potatoes: 0.75 zl
- Flavourings: 1.50 zl

Total: 9.40 zl
Makes: 10 fish cakes
Per fishcake: 0.94 zl

Black chickpea and coconut curry (Kadala)

This dish is from the south Indian state of Kerala, whose name literally means "land of coconuts". It's a lush, tropical place teeming with life and quite a lot of coconuts too which end up in a lot of the cuisine there because they're virtually free. Fancy a coconut? Just nip up the nearest tree and there you are.

This Keralan black chickpea curry is considered to be a breakfast dish by the locals. I ate mine in the evening. I hope no one minds...

There's quite a bit of chilli in this recipe - it's a feisty little number! The coconut gives a mellow sweetness and the rest of the ingredients round off the flavour.

Serves: 4
Cost per person: 2 zl (40 UK pence, 48 Euro cents, 64 US cents)

You'll need:

- 1/2 coconut (grated)
- 1 tomato (chopped)
- 5-6 dry red chillies
- 1-2 green chillies
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 inch ginger (minced)
- 2 medium onions (finely chopped)
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1-2 inch cinnamon
- 10 cardamon pods
- 6 cloves
- 1 tsp pepper corns
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- a smattering of curry leaves
- 1 cup of cooked or tinned black chick peas
- coconut oil for cooking

How does this play out?

1. Cook the dried black chick peas until soft (2-3 hours). Or just buy a can from an Asian store or Kuchnia Świata (if in Poland)

2. Drill a hole in the top of the coconut and drain out the water into a glass. Crack the coconut with a hammer. Bash the shell off the two sections with the hammer then cut off the brown skin from around the outside as if you were peeling an orange. It's tricky at fist but you'll get used to it! Whizz up the white flesh in a blender to make a coarse powder.

3. Soak the dried red chillies for at least 30 minutes in the coconut water (don't be scared by the number of chillies here - I used them for a number of recipes, not only this one!).

4. Make the Kerala garam masala by dry roasting the whole spices for a minute and then grind in a coffee grinder till you have a fine powder. Use 1/2 tsp of this mix in step 6.

5. Prep the rest of the ingredients. Remove the chillies from the coconut water. Use 5-6 of them here.

6. Hot pan and a little oil. Add the chillies, the coconut, the tomato, 1/2 tsp of the Kerala garam masala, the coriander and turmeric powder. Cook for around 5 minutes.

7. Grind down this mixture in a coffee grinder to get as smooth a paste as you can muster

8. Prep the final ingredients

9. Oil in a hot pan. Use coconut oil if you can get it. Mustard seeds in. Snap crackle and pop. Onions in and curry leaves. Add the green chillies and ginger/ garlic paste when the pinions start to brown slightly. Cook out the rawness.

10. Add the paste. Thin with water. Add the black chickpeas. Cook down for around 10-15 minutes. Season with salt.

11. You're good to go! Serve with rice

Cost:

- Chickpeas: 2 zl
- Coconut: 1 zl
- Rice: 2.40 zl
- Tomato: 0.50 zl
- The rest: 2.10 zl

Total: 8 zl
Serves: 4
Per person: 2 zl

Fish fingers in herb breadcrumbs with garlic and rosemary sautéed potatoes

Captain Birdseye's got me here - his fish fingers are half the price of mine. I'm using cod, though, and I guess you aren't, eh Captain?

330g of prime cod fillet set me back 16 zl (that's 4 quid right there...) and the meal was planned for 4 people so this one really pushed the 5 zloty budget to the edge.

The result, I think, was worth it! The fish tasted real, unprocessed and nicely complemented by the herb crust. The side dish of sautéed potatoes proved to be a perfect accompaniment and, finished off with a simple salad, what a tasty meal it was!

Cost: 5 zl per person (1 British Pound Sterling, 1.6 US Dollars)
Serves: 4

What you need:

- 330g of quality cod fillet 
- breadcrumbs (whizz up some old bread - then it's free!)
- 1 egg
- a couple of handfuls of herbs (I used basil, coriander and chives)
- a little lemon juice (optional)
- salt and pepper
- 500g of potatoes (peeled)
- salad of your choice
- olive oil for frying

Let's get on it!

1. Cut the fish into strips. If you like you could marinade in a little lemon juice, salt and pepper for around an hour. Then drain off the marinade.

3. Prep your herbs and add to the breadcrumbs

4. Start boiling the potatoes with a tsp of salt. Not too much water. Put the potatoes in the pan from cold. After 10-15 minutes they should be ready - stick a knife through to check. Drain.

5. Do the old "flour-egg-breadcrumbs" routine with the fish slices

6. Pan fry the fish fingers in olive oil on a medium heat, turning occasionally - be careful not to break the fish as it will be delicate

7. Meanwhile... Your potatoes have been boiled and drained, right? So, get some garlic and rosemary in a pan with olive oil

8. Potatoes in. Sautee on a medium heat until they get a nice brown coating

9. Serve with salad and enjoy!

Cost:

- fish: 16 zl
- potatoes: 0.75 zl
- the egg: 0.50 zl
- the salad: 2 zl
- the rest: 0.75 zl

Total: 20 zl
Serves: 4
Per person: 5 zl

Chicken Vindaloo

Vindaloo, vindaloo, vindaloo, vindaloo, na na!

It's a bastardised Portuguese dish from Goa that was bastardised further by British Indian restaurants which tend to use the term "vindaloo" to mean "bloody hot!". We're going to retire that British version right now and consign it to the bin it belongs in. We're going Portuguese-Goan here.

Vin = wine (i.e. vinegar)
Aloo = garlic

In other words, a dish with loads of vinegar and garlic, as I'm sure the original Portuguese version would have been back in the old country. Once it hit Indian shores, however, the locals added their own little spice and magic which resulted in quite a strange yet endearing dish.

If you really want authenticity, this dish should really be made with pork. I'm not a big pig-eater so I'll use chicken thigh meat. Thigh, not breast. Why? You need to cook it longer in the pan than a breast would allow. Thighs stay juicy. Breasts dry out. No, that wasn't a metaphor.

Serves: 4
Cost: 2.88 zl per person (58 Uk pence)

What you'll need:

- around 500g of chicken thigh meat
- a glass of wine vinegar
- 1 tsp pepper corns
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 tsp coriander seeds
- cinnamon stick
- 6-7 cardamon pods
- 5 cloves
- 5-6 large dried red chillies
- 1-2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 inch ginger (crushed)
- 6 cloves of garlic (crushed)
- 2 onions (finely chopped)
- 1 green chilli (slit)

Shall we get to it?

1. Deseed the chillies

2. Soak the chillies in a glass of wine vinegar for 30 minutes or until soft

3. Prep the seeds and dry roast for around a minute or until you can smell the aromas. DON'T burn!

4. Powder the whole spices in a coffee grinder

5. Add the chillies and vinegar to the grinder and whizz away until you've got a fine paste

6. Marinade the chicken thigh pieces overnight in this paste

7. Prep the ingredients for cooking

8. Pound the garlic in a pestle and mortar, grate the ginger and slit the green chilli

9. Oil in a hot pan. Mustard seeds in. Snap crackle and pop.

10. Onions in. Sprinkle with salt. Cook down till golden

11. Garlic and ginger in

12. Green chilli in

13. Turmeric in

14. Chicken

15. Swill out the marinade bowl with water and add. Cook down on a low heat for around 20 minutes

16. Check the seasoning. Ready to serve! Goes nicely with basmati rice.

Costing:

- chicken: 7.50 zl

- rice: 2.40 zl

- the rest: 1.60 zl

Total: 11.50 zl

Serves: 4

Per person: 2.88 zl