Smoked haddock and parsnip fishcakes

I managed to get a bag of parsnips at a reduced rate from our local supermarket, as they weren’t beautiful. It was a good bargain, I got about 500g of parsnips. I made this recipe from Ottolenghi’s book, Simple. I halved the quantities, and substituted dried dill, on account of not being able to get fresh dill. I had enough for six large fishcakes. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 300g peeled parsnips
• Olive oil
• 250g smoked haddock fillets, skinned
• 2 tsp dried dill
• 10g chopped chives
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• zest of one lemon, cut the lemon into wedges for serving. 
• a large egg, beaten
• salt and pepper 
• butter

METHOD:

• Preheat the oven to 190C fan
• Chop the peeled parsnips into chunks, toss with 3 tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt. Roast in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes, until soft and browned. Sit to cool slightly. 
• Put the cooked and cooled parsnips into a food processor and blitz to a coarse mash. I had some extra parsnip, so I put this into a container for the freezer for use later. Put the parsnip in a large bowl
• Put the fish into the same processor, and blitz again intil roughly chopped.
• Add the fish to the parsnip mash along with the egg, garlic, chopped herbs, 1/2 tsp salt, ground black pepper, and the lemon zest. Mix well, and shape the mixture into fishcakes. Mine were about the size of a crumpet or small burger. You can also put the mixture in the fridge for use the next day. 
• Put a bit of butter in a frying pan along with a bit of olive oil, and heat to medium, with the butter melting and foaming. Add the fishcakes and fry them, around 4 minutes on each side. Two fishcakes is plenty for one person. Serve with a wedge of lemon.