Mamta's Kitchen - A Family Cookbook
Fishcakes
I have a recipe for Thai fishcakes. They taste good, but I have difficulty stopping them from falling apart when I'm frying them.
If I keep on adding flour to bind them, they taste too much of flour.
Added egg white today, which seems to make the mix even gloopier.
Any tips?
Phil
do they use mashed potato ?... don't add anything to the mash (like milk/butter), make sure you full drain the potatoes (and even allow them to sit steaming dry for a minute or two before mashing)...
Steve
No, there's no mashed potato, but that's an idea for the kids.
My wife says to leave the lix in the fridge for an hour. Not sure whether that'll help, but I'll try it.
Phil
Sorry, my internet was playing up and kept cutting off yesterday, so gave up working on it yesterday!
Phil, I make add mashed potatoes and egg.
The mix may look gloopy at the time, but if you leave it in the fridge for a few of hours, it may be fine. So your wife may be right.
What are your ingredients for these fish cakes? Is adding some mashed potato an option?
No, no mashed potato, Mamta. But Thai things like lime juice, coriander leaves, Thai fish sauce and green or red chillis. It's a recipe by Nigel Slater that we cut out of The Observer, back in the 1990's, when we lived in the UK.
My brother has just said that the secret is to do it in a blender. Well, not in OUR new blender, which fails to do anything in the topmost part of the blender, while making pur?e in the bottom. Even when we push things down to the bottom with a spatula, it's still bad. The only way to get it to work is to add liquid, which messes up the mix.
I'll try sticking it in the fridge for a while, as you suggest, and perhaps doing the green chilli, coriander leaf mix first, then just miwxing it with the fish with a masher.
One thing that doesn't help are bits of fish that are too big, and then fall off in the pan.
Anyway, thanks for that link!
Phil
Hi Phil
Thai Fish Cakes
Try this:-
450g firm white fish
1 or 2 tbsp red thai curry paste*
1 egg beaten
2 tsp fish sauce
1 tbsp Kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped
1 tbsp thai basil leaves (sweet basil will do), finely chopped
flour for dredging the fish cakes
oil for deep frying
*Adjust to taste or make your own using mild red chilli's
Put fish, curry paste, and egg into processor and whizz until smooth.
Remove to a bowl add fish sauce and basil / lime leaves mix well cover and place in fridge for 30 minutes to harden up, make into small balls and flatten to 5cm patties dredge well with flour, deep fry for a few minutes until crisp and golden.
These need to be served straight away otherwise they go soft.
a small quantity of green beans is usual, as well. I don't know what they replace, but every self-respecting Thai fish cake should have a little. Beans are cut very small, blanch first!
Hi Suresh, funny enough that's what I always thought but not so, there is as many recipes if not more without beans, I think originally no beans were used but I stand to be corrected.
curry-man86
leaving out an ingredient could just be that, it has been left out, but it would be interesting to know what the beans replace in Thai fishcakes (may be it's crab cakes I'm thinking of). Sometimes, ingredients are added for a reason (but not always!). Blanched green beans will add texture to an otherwise ball of soft mix?
just seen a recipe where they use wing beans instead of green beans (which aren't Thai, of course). I've cooked wing beans, and they tasted of tobacco!!, not my thing, but it might make all the difference in the fish cake, like using smoked fish!!
Suresh don't get me wrong I would normally use green beans cos I like the taste and crunch but if you really want to take them to a higher Level......
******************* "WARNING this is ADDICTIVE" ****************************
Cucumber Relish by david thompson
3 tbsp coconut vinegar or cider vinegar
3 tbsp white sugar
4 tbsp water
pinch salt
1 small cucumber (half a cup'ish) quartered and thinly sliced
4 red shallots finely sliced
2 tbsp shredded fresh ginger
1 long red chilli julienned or cut into thin rounds
1 tbsp coriander leaves roughly chopped
Combine vinegar, sugar, water and salt in a small pan and bring to boil, remove from heat when sugar has dissolved. Cool. Mix all other ingredients in a serving bowl and pour the syrup over them, leave to stand for 15 minutes before serving.
curry-man86