I LOVE Thai food and these Thai fish cakes are a must whenever I have Thai food, these fish cakes are so light and bursting with flavour and actually easier to recreate than you think.
So let's jump in! There are some key ingredients that you cannot substitute and the fish cakes will not be the same as the ones you get in the restaurant. For the fish you'll need basa fillets, if you are struggling to find them in supermarkets, Aldi sell them and they are not pricey either, you'll also need some raw prawns. It is really important that you use a good brand red curry paste, I had previously used a red curry paste from Sainsbury's and the results were not great, my second attempt at these fish cakes were
the same as the ones you get at the restaurant but that is because I used a better curry paste the Mae Ploy red curry paste, you can find it in any oriental Asian stores or international food stores. I've attached an image below of the red curry paste so you know what to look out for. You'll also need Kaffir Lime Leaves, and fish sauce you will not be able to substitute the flavours.
First you'll need to wash the fish, de-vein your prawns and wash them with lemon juice and vinegar. You can chop the basa fillets into smaller chunks, you'll need either a blender/hand blender or a food processor, a food processor would provide better results but I only had a hand blender so I made do, it still provided great results. You'll need to blend the basa and prawns for a few minutes until it looks like cake batter, it has to be mushy, it may look disgusting but it will taste great. Once you're happy with the consistency you can chop 3/4 kaffir limes you'll have to discard the stems, you can use fresh or dried leaves I looked all over for fresh kaffir lime leaves but couldn't find any so I used dried kaffir lime leaves. I also used a teaspoon of fish sauce and used half a teaspoon of garlic powder, ginger powder, I also added a teaspoon of white pepper and salt and a tablespoon of lemon juice. For a bit of bite chop 5/6 green beans and add to the fish as well as one egg you won't have to beat it first. You can then mix everything in with a fork or a whisk. once all the ingredients are mixed in you can start forming the cakes.
Scoop a tablespoon of the fish mixture and using wet hands form a round cake, you'll have to make sure you flatten the cake too but make sure it's not too thin, view the pictures to judge the thickness of the fish cakes. You can either shallow fry the fish cakes or deep fry them, I shallow fried the fish cakes at an attempt to be healthy, fry over medium heat with some vegetable oil, or the oil of your choice until the cakes are brown on each side. You can cut the fish cakes open to see if it is cooked, you'll be able to tell it is cooked as it should be firm on the inside. drain them over a kitchen towel and serve with sweet chilli sauce.
Ordinarily you would serve fish cakes as a starter, but I had mine as a main with an egg noodle stir fry, you can also have this with egg fried rice. And voila! Your fake-away is ready. With a possible second lockdown I'm learning to cook dishes that I would usually get in a restaurant so I can save money and get my weekly takeaway fix. Hope you enjoyed this recipe head over to my Instagram and TikTok @Shefshahira to see pictures and videos of my other recipes. Happy Eating!
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