Healthy Thai Fish Cakes
Along with Tom Yum Soup, Thai fish cakes always remind me of our honeymoon in Thailand. When we returned home we got really into cooking Thai food, sometimes with success, often not. Thai fish cakes are meant to be fried, and I always ended up burning them.
The first time I successfully recreated Thai fish cakes is when I baked them in the oven, which also makes them more healthy - hooray! Baking them is much easier than frying. Bags of frozen fish are inexpensive and ideal for these Thai fish cakes.
A tube of Gourmet Garden Thai Seasoning is ideal for flavouring Thai fish cakes and cuts the prep down considerably. If you can't get hold of any, blend up the following: 1-2 red chillies, handful fresh coriander, 2 spring onions, 4 cloves garlic, thumb sized piece of ginger and a stalk lemongrass.
I've also included a recipe for sweet chilli and ginger sauce - it's so easy to make and the obligatory accompaniment to Thai fish cakes. Give everyone their own bowl to allow for double dipping. They make a great 'picky food' or a main meal with noodles.
Healthy Thai Fish Cakes
Information:
- Serves 4 as a main or 8 as a starter
- Time: 15 mins prep + 30 mins cooking time
- Cost: £1.31 per serving*
- Calories: 245 per serving*
*based on 4 sharing using Gourmet Garden Thai Seasoning, thai fish cakes only without sweet chilli sauce
Ingredients:
For the healthy Thai fish cakes:
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 500g frozen white fish, defrosted
- 80g tube Gourmet Garden Thai Seasoning (or see above)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 egg
- 130g frozen green beans, defrosted and finely sliced
- 2-3 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs
- Salt & pepper to taste
For the sweet chilli and ginger sauce:
- 100g white sugar
- 100ml rice vinegar (or white winegar)
- 100ml water
- 2 tsp Gourmet Garden chilli / 1 finely chopped red chilli
- 2 tsp Gourmet Garden ginger or 2 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
Instructions:
- Pre-heat the oven to 180 C / gas mark 5. Line a baking sheet with baking paper and use around half the vegetable oil to grease the paper.
- Place the fish in a food processor and blend until it's smooth but not like a paste. Add the Thai spices, soy sauce, lime juice, egg and green beans and mix well.
- Add enough breadcrumbs to bind the mixture and season to taste. Mix very well to combine. Roll the mixture into 16-18 balls and shape into patties.
- Place on the greased baking paper on the baking tray and brush the top of each Thai fish cake with the remaining vegetable oil.
- Bake for around 30 minutes until golden brown and cooked through. Turn the Thai fish cakes once during the cooking time.
- To make the sweet chilli and ginger sauce, place all the ingredients in a pan and stir over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. When the sugar has dissolved, bring to the boil and simmer vigorously for around 5-7 minutes until the mixture has a syrupy consistency. Leave to cool before serving.
