Red Curry Fish Cakes

I love Asian food - just in case you hadn't noticed. I love Asian flavours - crisp, fresh, fragrant and clean. I don't take a bite of a SE Asian dish and have to think and analyse what 20 odd ingredients have gone into my mouthful. One of the reasons I love Thai food is it's pure simplicity, and the combination of flavours are traditional and make sense...

ingredients that grow together - go together!

I catered a friends birthday party recently and these Thai fish cakes barely made it out of the kitchen, teamed with a tomato chile jam, they were a hit. They also make a fabulous midweek dinner combined with a simple salad.

For my Doha friends, Thai Basil is available at Megamart, they get their Asian vegetables in on a Thursda, so Friday is a great time to shop. It's sold by weight, so don't be afraid to to open the bag and pull out a small handful of leaves.

Thai Fish Cakes

Use the freshest fish you can in this, and change around the flavours to suit what you have and what you like.The fishcakes are moderately (popularly) spicy, if you like extra spice, add in some chopped chile.

• 500 grams firm boneless white fish, chopped into bite sized pieces
• 2 teaspoons red curry paste
• 1 teaspoon cornflour
• 2 spring onions, chopped finely
• 1/4 cup thai basil chopped finely
• 1/4 cup coriander leaves, chopped finely
• 1 clove garlic, chopped finely
• 1/3 cup coconut milk
• juice of half a lime
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• oil for shallow frying, or a spray of oil to bake in the oven

Method

1. Combine the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until the ingredients come together but you can still see lovely lumps of fish. Alternatively, chop fish finely and combine with the rest of the ingredients.
2. Form the mixture into 3cm balls - the mixture will be sticky, so use wet hands to form the mixture into balls. Flatten.
3. Either cook in an oven at 400 degrees fahrenheit (200 degrees celcius) for 10 minutes, turning once during cooking, or heat 1cm vegetable oil in a frying pan on moderate heat, and fry the fishcakes for 2 minutes, then turn over and fry for 2 minutes more.
4. Drain and serve.