Thai Fish Cakes

If there’s a fish cake of any type on a restaurant menu, Helena will choose it. When we fist got together in the 90’s, I was living in a small village just outside Cambridge called Little Shelford. The village pub was taken over and became one of the best Thai restaurants in the area. Needless to say Helena would often have the fish cakes as a starter.

We’ve also enjoyed a couple of trips to Thailand. Some of the best food we had was in a small shack on the island of Koh Tao at Tanote Bay.

For these fish cakes, I made my own Thai red curry paste using this recipe from EatingThaiFood.com. My version wasn’t quite as red, but it was delicious. 

Method

To prepare the dipping sauce

1. Blend all your ingredients until your garlic and chillis have broken down but still are a little coarse.
2. Put your mixture into a pan and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Allow to cool a little before serving.

Cooking the fish cakes

1. Pat your fish dry, you want to get rid of any excess moisture.
2. Add your fish, egg yolk, sugar and red curry paste to a blender and blend until the fish is gloopy, not runny.
3. Chop your beans into 5mm long lengths.
4. Mix your beans, fish paste, basil and lime leaves.
5. Setup your Egg for direct cooking and preheat a wok to 200°C. 
6. Add your oil to the skillet and allow to warm.
7. Now using a wet desert spoon, take some of the mixture and form into 4cm rounds about 7mm thick. Fry in the pan until they turn golden, turning once.

Serve your fish cakes with the dipping sauce.