Fish cakes are just one of many delicious snacks sold as street food in Thailand. Batches are fried on request and served in a plastic bag, along with a bamboo skewer for eating them and a small bag of sauce for additional flavour.
Ingredients
- 1 lb (450 g) firm white fish fillets
- 1 tablespoon red curry paste or bought paste
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 egg
- 2 oz (50 g) snake (yard-long) beans, thinly sliced
- 5 makrut (kaffir) lime leaves, finely shredded
- peanut oil, for deep-frying
- sweet chilli sauce, to serve
- cucumber relish, to serve
How to Make It
- Remove any skin and bone from the fish and roughly chop the flesh. In a food processor or a blender, mince the fish fillets until smooth. Add the curry paste, fish sauce and egg, then blend briefly until smooth. Spoon into a bowl and mix in the beans and makrut lime leaves. Use wet hands to shape the fish paste into thin, flat cakes, about 5 cm (2 in) across, using about a tablespoon of mixture for each.
- Heat 5 cm (2 in) oil in a wok or deep frying pan over medium heat. When the oil seems hot, drop a small piece of fish cake into it. If it sizzles immediately, the oil is ready.
- Lower five or six of the fish cakes into the oil and deep-fry them until they are golden brown on both sides and very puffy. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Keep the cooked fish cakes warm while deep-frying the rest. Serve hot with sweet chilli sauce and cucumber relish.
- For a variation, make up another batch of the fish mixture but leave out the curry paste. Cook as above and serve both types together.
