A different Thai fishcake recipe

My very first post all that time ago was about Thai fishcakes - we had them again last night.  It was Spud's birthday and I had rashly promised whatever she wanted for dinner (Birds Eye Fishfingers and Oven Chips being the one exception).  She requested Thai fishcakes. 

I thought I'd make these ones a little differently - rather than the ususal pinky cakes, I thought I'd give them a bash with a green curry paste instead.  Once again, there are no photos I'm afraid - when I got to the camera, I discovered the memory card was full of pictures of Maddie in her Christmas Fairy costume...

Green Thai Fishcakes
1 large shallot, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
2 stalks lemon grass, trimmed and finely chopped
2" ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
Juice of 1 lime
2-3 green chillies (or to taste), chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
A tablespoon or so of nam pla (Thai fish sauce)
1/2 big bunch coriander - stems and roots (if possible) too
1lb white fish - cod, coley, ling etc
Oil to fry

Put the shallot, garlic, lemon grass, ginger and chillies into a food processor and whiz as much as possible.  Now add the lime juice, nam pla and ground spices.  Whizz again.  Separate the leaves from the stalks and roots of the coriander.  Chop the stems and roots and half of the leaves and add into the food processor.  Whizz again to a paste.  Now roughly chop the fish (watch out for any bones) and add to the processor.  Whizz again on pulse - it's important not to over blend this as the mixture gets too hot and begins to cook.

Transfer the paste to a bowl.  Rougly chop the remaining coriander leaves and stir into the paste.  This mixture can now be set aside for a few hours if required.

Preheat the oven to about 170-180°C.

Get a frying pan hot and add oil to form a thin layer - 1mm or so deep.  Using a desert spoon, drop a spoonful of mixture into the frying pan and squish down a bit with the back of the spoon to form cake shapes (ish).  Don't overfil the pan - you'll probably need to do this in batches.  When the cakes are brown and nicely set, flip them over (carefully) with a slice and brown on the other side. 

Line a baking sheet with kitchen paper and transfer the cooked cakes to this.  Place in the oven to continue cooking while you fry the others.  When they're all done, keep them in the oven while you prepare any side dishes.

We had this with a noodle stir fry (with more lemongrass, more coriander, yellow pepper, carrot and cashews) and a dipping sauce made with lime, nam pla, a touch of soy, lots of chilli, coriander and a little finely diced carrot...  and a nice bottle of fizz ;)

tags: fishcake  fish  thai  

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