Vietnamese fish cakes

I have several recipes for these fishcakes, and they all involve fish and red curry paste.  Then the fish cakes turn out too strong for me, with no taste of the fish.  When I saw a Bill's recipe with no curry paste, I tried it out, found it a little too simple and modified it as below.  These cakes taste more of fish than curry and so they do not assault the senses!

 

If you cannot get snake beans, just use normal beans. If you like the fish cakes a lot more spicy, add a chopped chilli to the fish mix.  Serve with a simple Vietnamese salad of lettuce, mint, coriander, sliced mango, bean sprouts and a dressing of lime, olive oil seasoned with a dash of soy, fish sauce and sugar.  As for the fish - I use the cheapest white fish fillets at the market, the only thing to avoid is very oily fish.  You can make really little fish cakes and serve them as starters for a party with the dipping sauce.

 

I made a batch of these and froze them, then vacuum  sealed them and froze them - turned out great, just defrost and fry.

 

The recipe makes enough for 4, with a few left over for lunch the next day.

 

Vietnamese Fish Cakes

 

Rating: moderate

 

Ingredients:

Fish Cakes

1kg white fish fillets, chopped

2 eggs

4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

2 inch of ginger peeled and chopped

8 spring onions

3-1/2 tblsp fish sauce

100 g green snake beans

 

Nouc Cham Dipping Sauce

1 clove garlic,

1 red chilli

1inch piece of ginger

2 tblsp castor sugar

juice of one lime

2 tblsp fish sauce

dash of soy sauce

dash of Chinese wine vinegar

 

Method:

Follow this order and everything will be ready at the same time.

 

Put all fish cake ingredients except the beans into a food processor, process until smooth.

Chop beans finely and add to the mix.

Put fish mix into the fridge.

 

Make the dipping sauce by finely chopping the garlic, chilli and ginger and combining them with  all the other ingredients.

Taste - it should taste a little of lime and salt at this stage. 

Adjust the sugar/fish sauce/lime to taste.

Put aside.

 

If you are making a salad, this is when you make it - but do not dress the salad yet.

 

Put about 1 inch of vegetable oil (I usually add a little peanut oil for flavour) into a large frypan and heat over a high heat.

Shape the cakes into small patties about 2cm thick. 

Fry the fish cakes for around 2 minutes, or until they turn white 1/2 way up the side, flip and fry the other side.  They should be golden brown, with no give in them when pressed.

Drain on paper towel.

 

Dress the salad, and serve the fish cakes with the dipping sauce and fresh lime.

 

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