Salmon, carrot and sweet potato puree or fish cakes

This was inspired by a conversation I had with my friend Clair and a fridge full of carrots and sweet potato.

2 – 3 tablespoons olive oil

1 knob of butter

1 onion, diced.

1 garlic clove, crushed, finely chopped, whatever rocks your boat

2 medium sized sweet potatoes, peeled and diced to 1cm cubes

4 carrots, peeled and diced into 1 cm cubes

1 large zucchini (or 2 – 3 small), coarsely grated

1 400g tin of salmon – you can use fresh salmon if you prefer but I had a tin in the cupboard and was trying not to spend money

Heat oil and butter in heavy bottomed pan over medium to low heat.

When butter has melted, add onion and garlic and sauté until onions soft and glistening.

Take care not to burn them. I always burn the damn garlic.

Add sweet potato and carrots to the pan and stir until they’re coated with oil.

Then (just) cover with water, bring to the boil and reduce heat to a simmer.

When you feel they starting to get soft add the zucchini and stir around.

Simmer until a sharp knife passes through the veg easily.

Add tinned salmon and stir until salmon is heated through.

Mash or coarsely puree depending on the palate of your youngest eater. Mine is 9 months old so it was not-quite-smooth.

Freeze a third to a half of the mixture in ice cubes.

The add the following to the remaining salmon mixture and combine:

1 cup of breadcrumbs

1 eggs

½ cup flour

If you think the mixture is not stiff enough to make fishcakes then add breadcrumbs/flour until you have a consistency that works for you, so that when you fashion them into 3cm balls / fishcakes they don’t fall apart.

Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan, place balls into the pan and press down to partly flatten. Cook until golden brown on each side.

Serve with salad, peas, chips or whatever you fancy. There’s lots of veg here already so don’t sweat about adding extras to the plate.

The consumption reality:

Baby: Loved it. But then she’s a bit of a guts and isn’t the most discriminating audience.

Toddler: Always risky. Meal times have become opportunities to exercise control. Grrrrr. However, he thoroughly enjoyed them.

Adults: Soooo delicious. A lovely rocket and cherry tomato salad, crisp glass of semillion. Very happy.