In many ways my friends are my family — I see and cook for them more regularly than I do my “real” family — and my mustardy mackerel fishcakes have become part of their lives as well as mine.

One friend texted me to say how delighted she was that her husband had cooked them as a surprise supper, having downloaded the recipe from my blog (www.eattherightstuff.com). A month or so later she told me that her brother had also cooked them for her, having copied the recipe when he’d tried them at her house.

Gordon says: I absolutely love this. We normally think of putting salmon or haddock in our fishcakes, but why not mackerel, which is such an underrated fish? It shows how the best recipes can be utterly simple. I could see these going down really well on my pub bar menus.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

500g potatoes, diced

225g peppered smoked mackerel,

Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 bunch spring onions, chopped

1 heaped tablespoon wholegrain mustard

Polenta, for coating the fishcakes (optional)

Method

1 Cook the potatoes in a large pan of boiling water, until tender. Drain and mash.

2 Remove the skin from the mackerel fillets and flake into bite-size pieces, removing any stray bones. Add this to the potato plus the lemon zest and juice, spring onions and mustard. Mix well and season to taste.

3 Shape the mixture into fishcakes and coat them with polenta (pour some on to a plate to make this easy). Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.

4 Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. When it is hot, add the fishcakes and cook for about 5 minutes on each side. Alternatively, bake them for 30 minutes at 180C/350F/gas 4.

Freezing

These fishcakes freeze well; allow them to defrost before cooking. If you freeze the fishcakes, cook them in the oven as they can be a little tricky to fry after freezing. It also helps to defrost them on a baking tray.

Abby Dyson is from London

Times Recommends

• Jane MacQuitty’s party wine
• Oliver Peyton's Christmas pavlova
• Blood orange cosmopolitan