Baby Bites Mexican Style Salmon Fishcakes

The beauty of reaching a stage during traditional weaning where finger foods are de rigeur, is you no longer have to faff around making purees or indeed making an entirely different dish to what you are making for the rest of the family.

These Mexican style salmon fishcakes are a great meal for the adults made with fresh chopped chilli added and served in a wrap with all the Mexican trimmings – salad, sour cream, salsa – guacamole even. For baby I make to the exact same recipe minus the chill and serve simply with some cherry tomatoes and slices of cucumber and she absolutely loves them.

They have a lovely zing from the lime and coriander and a gentle smoke of paprika so if you haven’t yet introduced bolder flavours to your little one, maybe err on the side of caution and go gently.

These do freeze well too so if you did want to, make a batch, shape them into the fishcakes first and pop into a sandwich bag and once completely cooled pop into the freezer – I tend to just add the extra to our batch though!

Here’s how:

• 2-3 new potatoes
• Small fillet of salmon
• 2 spring onions
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
• Good squeeze of fresh lime juice
• Pinch of black pepper
• 1 slice of brown or granary bread
• 1 egg
• Drizzle of olive oil
• Cherry tomatoes and cucumber to serve

Firstly clean the potatoes and place into the microwave for 6 minutes. Whilst these are cooking, finely slice the spring onions and mince the garlic and place into a bowl.

Chop the coriander and add to the bowl.

Blitz the slice of bread in a blender or crumble with your hands if you don’t have a blender. Add half the breadcrumbs to the bowl and keep the rest to one side, on a plate or in another small bowl.

Chop the salmon into small pieces and add to the spring onion, garlic and coriander.

Once the new potatoes have cooked, use a fork to mash them up completely – they should still retain some shape and not become mush. Add to the salmon mix. Now add the paprika, pepper, squeeze of lime and use a fork to stir and try to evenly distribute each of the ingredients.

Beat the egg into a cup or bowl and then add to the salmon mixture and mix well. If, once mixed, the mixture looks too wet to shape into fishcakes, add some more breadcrumbs until it looks pliable (if so you will need some more breadcrumbs made).

Drizzle the oil into a pan and place on a medium to low heat.

Now using your hands, pull out about a tablespoon of the mixture and shape into a small, round, fishcake. Dip into the breadcrumbs so it’s covered on both sides and place straight into the heated pan. Do the same with the remaining mixture – or place some into freezer bags as you wish.

You want to cook them until they are enticingly golden brown on both sides and the salmon is cooked through – four minutes on each side should be more than sufficient – but ensure the salmon is all cooked through for baby.

Serve with cherry tomatoes and cucumber or some other salad items and allow to cool enough for baby to handle.