Experiment: Thai Fish Cake
Introductions:
I suddenly had a craving for Thai food. I then browsed through the internet and found this recipe (which I modified a little) for Thai fish cakes! The ingredients are easy to find in Asian supermarket, so I went to T&T to grab what I needed. I came home and made it… ok, to be honest, I was a little bit disappointed. Not that the recipe wasn’t good (actually I quite liked the taste), but the fish paste that I got from T&T wasn’t good. It wasn’t “chewy” like the usual fish paste. I’m sure they added a lot of stuff in the fish paste to make the fish paste cost cheaper. Less fish –> not “chewy” and not enough fish taste. Boo~ The texture wasn’t right! Ok maybe next time I’ll substitute the fish paste with shrimp paste… Shrimp paste is not hard to make! (Hmm… maybe I should google how to make fish paste!)
Materials:
350 g dace fish paste
1.5 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp red curry paste
pepper
1 stalk of green onions, finely chopped
1 stalk of lemon grass, finely chopped
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
Procedure:
1) Mix everything in a medium size bowl. Stir in one direction (only) until all the ingredients are evenly mixed and it becomes like a paste like texture. Cover and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes for the flavour to come out.
2) Scoop a spoon of the fish cake mixture into your hands and roll it into a ball. Flatten. You should be able to make about 10 fish cakes.
3) Heat up a non-stick pan to medium heat. Put the fish cakes in and pan fry for about 3-5 minutes. Flip over and cook for another 3-5 minutes, or until cooked. You can lightly press the fish cakes as you cook.
Results:
Discussions:
1) Well I don’t think I’ll go back to T&T for dace fish paste after this… very disappointed at T&T.
2) Definitely will try it with shrimp! I’m sure I’ll turn out good! hehe!
Reference:
Ho, Christine. Christine’s Recipe http://www.christinesrecipes.com/2010/05/thai-curry-fish-cakes.html?m=1
