Not so Thai fishcakes

Now Thai fish cakes that I have had in the past are a blended of fish that you blitz together in the food processor with a load of ingredients to make a lovely fish cake.  But this fish cake has potatoes init and in that way is more like a traditional British fish cake

For this you will need,

300g/10½ oz white meaty fish

Sea salt

1 tbsp olive oil

4 tbsp vegetable oil

Flour

3-4 lime leaves

1 large red chilli

4cm/1½ in piece fresh galangal or ginger

2 garlic cloves

2 stalks lemongrass

200g/7oz potatoes mashed

2 tsp fish sauce, or to taste

Small handful fresh coriander

1 lime, juice only, or to taste

First, you need to cook your potatoes and your fish now for your.  Now for your potato, you do not want it to wet so if you have it use a ricer to mash your potato and do not use any butter or milk.  What you want is a almost pure mashed potato. As for your fish, my favourite way is to season with some sea salt and a drizzle of olive oil and just roast in the oven.  This gives you a lovely flavour to the fish that you do not get by steaming or poaching. Once you have your mash and cooked fish you can make your fish cake

Take your garlic, galangal, chilli, lime leaves, lemongrasses, chops them together, and add it to a bowl.  Now add the fish sauce and your limejuice.  Take a good handful of fresh coriander, chop it, and add that to the bowl.  Now flack in your cooked fish and finally bind every thing together with the mashed potato. Any juiced form the fish that you might have from roasting can go in the mix as well.

Then form your fish cakes , I use my hands but you can use a pastry cutter if you want . Pop the formed fish cake in to some flour and then let them sit in your fridge for a little while to firm up.  If you mix is a little to wet to work with add a little flour to the mix to help absorbed the excess liquid.

Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan and start by frying the fish cake.  Once it has a little colure on it turn it over.  They only take a little while to cook about five or so minutes on each side.

Then serve with slices of lime and a chilli dipping sauce.