Thai Fishcakes

These are such beautiful little babies. Small and green with flecks of red—and the taste… well, they taste even better than they look. Although there are some not-so-mainstream ingredients in here (really just one, the fish sauce), these fish cakes are not over the top with exotic flavours. All four of my kids as well as our dinner guest, Jude, the village historian, loved them. I thought I had made enough for leftovers the next day, but we gobbled them up without a care for tomorrow.

¾ pound mild, white fish (I used Pollock/Coley), roughly chopped

½ pound raw, shelled shrimp

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro (coriander)

2 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoon soy sauce

½ red bell pepper, roughly chopped

4 green onions (spring onions), trimmed, roughly chopped

Zest of ¼ lime

1” fresh ginger root, peeled and roughly chopped

Between ½ teaspoon and 1 tablespoon red Thai curry paste (this depends entirely on how much heat you want. My curry paste was very hot and I was serving these to the youngins, so I used just ½ teaspoon)

1 Egg

Vegetable or nut oil

1) Place everything except the oil in the bowl of a food processor and process until well chopped, but not a paste. Set in the refrigerator to cool and firm up for at least 30 minutes, but this can be made a day ahead.

2) With wet hands, shape into golf ball size rounds, then squish into patties. You should make about 25. Now, either brush with a bit of oil and broil or grill. Turn once when the cake gets golden brown, and cook the other side—roughly 3-4 minutes per side—this time could easily vary. Otherwise, the cakes can be sautéed for about 3 minutes per side.

Serve with lime wedges and Crackin’ Asian Slaw.