An exciting take on a Thai fishcake

Famous for its glimmering crystal blue seas backed by luscious rolling hills and peaked mountain chains, Thailand is a picturesque nation brimming with a rich colourful culture. It’s no surprise that this country offers some of the best cuisine available. Aromatic, spicy, and packed full of flavour, Thai food is world-renowned and it’s not without reason.

Thai cuisine also heavily reflects its cultural emphasis on mealtime as a family. Favouring traditional home made food and home cooking, the Thai are a perfect example of how home cooking can be flavourful, fun and a perfect way to incorporate family time into one’s day. With the right ingredients and a bit of guidance, you can easily spice up your traditional dishes. Here are a few tips and tricks to improving home-cooked food but with a Thai twist:

Side dishes

Almost every meal will be served with a range of side dishes. Usually, it consists of a bowl of rice with a couple of flavourful side dishes to create a harmonious fusion of textures and flavours. Try making a side dish or two. You’ll be surprised by how well it can complement the main meal and add a special homemade touch.

Spices and flavours

Adding the right spices and creating a perfect blend can help elevate the flavour of traditional dishes. Thai dishes tend to make use of kaffir leaver, lemongrass, coriander, cloves, chillies, turmeric, star anise and many more aromatic spices. You can add your own spices to really add some aroma and a spicy kick to your dishes.

Sauces 

The Thai love their sauces, with the fish sauce being one of the most common. They often blend a variety of chillies, sauces and ingredients to make the perfect concoction to compliment the main dish. Pickled chillies also come under this category. Why not try making your own sauce to garnish your food with? It creates a delightful fusion of flavours to tantalise your tastebuds with.

Seafood:

As a country almost entirely surrounded by oceans, it comes as no surprise that the cuisine offers an extensive seafood menu and one it is very famous for. From juicy lobsters to exotic fish all the way to fish sauce, Thai cuisine tastefully reflects the beautiful oceans that surround it. Thai fish cakes are a popular Thai food and add a beautiful twist to the normal, mild, simple fish cakes we are used to. A beautifully aromatic dish harmoniously complimented by a zesty kick, these fishcakes deliver a spectacular show and they’re not so hard to make either. Here is a recipe we highly recommend you try out to make easy Thai fish cakes:

Thai fish cakes:

Ingredients:

Fish cakes:

• 2 kaffir lime leaves  fresh or dried
• 1 chopped red chilli 
• 1 lemongrass stalk chopped (leaves removed)/ 2 tsp lemongrass paste
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 2 peeled cloves of garlic - peeled
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp cumin
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 3 chopped spring onions
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil 
• Small piece of peeled and chopped ginger 
• 2 salmon fillets or any fish you like – skinned and boned removed
• 25g fresh coriander

Chilli sauce:

• 5 tsp white sugar
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• Juice of approximately 1 lime
• 1 finely chopped red chilli 

Method:

1. Place the chilli, fish sauce, garlic, lemongrass, salt, brown sugar, cumin, spring onions, and ginger in a food processor. Blend together until it is combined. 
2. Add the fish fillet of choice and blend for a few seconds. 
3. Add the coriander and kaffir lime leaves and blend again until combined. Leave a little texture and do not over blend.
4. Form the mixture into little balls the size of a walnut with your hands. Place in the fridge for a few minutes to firm up a little.
5. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat.  When heated up, add in the fish cake balls and press a little with a spatula to get the desired thickness for your fish cake. squash down a little with a spatula/fish slice. Cook for about a minute to a minute-and-a-half on each side, until golden brown.
6. Dissolve the sugar in the lime juice by mixing it together.  Add in the fish sauce and the chillies. That is your chilli sauce ready.
7. Serve up and enjoy!

We hope we’ve inspired you to take on some home cooking and maybe venture into the land of Thai cuisine.