Fishy Business: Thai recipes for sea food

FISH CAKE (TOD-MAN-PLA)

Ingredients

300g Featherbacks (Chital) fish

3 tbsp homemade red curry paste

1 tsp salt, 1 egg

2 tbsp cold water

2 tsp sugar

1 tbsp kaffir lime leaves, sliced thinly

½ cup long beans, chopped

2 cups vegetable oil

Method

Mix fish, egg, and cold water in a food processor and blend them together until the mixture turns sticky. Put the fish mix in a mixing bowl.

Add curry paste, kaffir lime leaves, long beans, sugar, and salt to the mixing bowl and mix all ingredients together into sticky dough. Heat oil in a wok on high heat. Turn to low heat when the oil reaches frying temperature.

Make patties from the fish mix; use about 2 tablespoons of fish mix in each patty, making each one to two centimetres thick. Fry patties until golden brown. Turn once. Serve with cucumber relish.

CUCUMBER RELISH

Ingredients

¼ cup white vinegar

¼ cup sugar, 1 tbsp water

½ tsp salt

½ cup cucumber, thinly sliced

3 to 4 bird's-eye chilies, chopped

Method

Add vinegar, sugar, salt and water in a sauce pan. Bring it to boil, then turn off the heat and let it cool down. Transfer to a small bowl; add chilies, cucumber.

COCONUT JELLY WITH COCONUT FLESH (WUN-MAPRAO)

Ingredients

4 cups green coconut water

2 cups coconut flesh

½ tbsp agar powder

½ cup sugar

Method

Open the coconut and remove the lid, and take out the coconut water and meat and keep aside.

Add coconut water, agar powder and sugar in a saucepan, mix together very well and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and pour the water mix back into the coconut. Add some coconut meat and leave to cool down, or serve immediately. Store in the refrigerator and serve chilled.

FISH CAKE (PATH-THAI)

Ingredients

8 (200g)shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 tbsp cooking tamarind concentrate

2 tbsp fish sauce, 1½ tsp palm sugar

3 tbsp oil

2 tsp shallots, ground to a paste

2 tsp garlic, ground to a paste

¼ cup salted ground peanut

½ cup chives, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 cup fresh bean sprouts

1 egg

100g fresh or dry rice noodles

¼ cup chopped coriander

½ cup hot water

For serving: lemon wedges, dry chili powder, white sugar and bean sprouts

Method

For dry noodles, place noodles in a large bowl. Soak in cold water for 30 minutes, drain and set aside. Fresh noodles can be used directly. In a wok, sauté the garlic and shallots with 2 tablespoons of oil on medium heat, until softened. Add shrimp and cook until those turn pink. Remove the shrimps from the wok.

Add tamarind concentrate, sugar, fish sauce to the mixture in the wok and bring to a boil. Add noodles and hot water and stir until tender. Push the noodles to the side of the wok, turn the heat to low, add 1 tablespoon oil, break the egg in and stir until done. Toss again with the noodles, add shrimps, bean sprouts, chives, and peanuts (leave some for topping), toss well.

Arrange on a serving dish, sprinkle with peanuts and coriander. Serve with fresh bean sprouts, chili powder, and slices of lime.

Photo: Shaheda Yesmin