Aromatic Thai inspired fish cakes

Fish cakes have never conjured up much enthusiasm in me. I have always associated them with a seriously boring way of using up left over fish. But over the last decade or so I have seen some fabulous twists being made with the use of herbs spices and top quality fish, to create a main event rather than ‘leftovers surprise’.

I made the below recipe about 2 months ago and was really happy with the result. I then used the same guidelines with left over fish and the result was similarly satisfying, although I used allot more breadcrumbs to extend the mixture and felt it made them a little stodgy.

I told my mom about the recipe and she felt I had really gone into over kill with all the aromatics and pastes but I really do feel it makes something special of what can be a very ordinary dish.

Aromatic Thai inspired fish cakes

Makes about 20 small cakes

500g raw or cooked fish (I used a mixture of haddock, salmon and butterfish)

1 egg

1 Tbsp of flour

½ a cup of fine bread crumbs

¼ of a cup of fresh coriander and dill

1 Tbsp of tahini paste

2 Tbsp of cashew nut paste (peanut should be a good substitute)

1 tsp of thai green curry paste

1 tsp of salt

zest of ¼ of a lemon and juice of half a lemon

1 clove of garlic

1cm of ginger, peeled

Chilli to taste

1 cup of sesame seeds for coating

Combine all the ingredients, except for the sesame seeds, in a blender until smooth. Don’t over blend as a little texture is nice, but all ingredients should be well combined.

Form balls with the paste in your hand (wetting your hands a little helps) and roll them in the sesame seeds, then flatten them a little to form cakes. Allow these to rest in the fridge for an hour to set before shallow frying them in oil over medium heat until cooked through and crispy on the outsdie. I skipped this step and the cakes were still quite loose and tricky to work with.

I served the fish cakes with a dipping sauce of yoghurt and a spicy coriander chutney.