Papadeli fishcakes

Papadeli fishcakes with dipping sauce

This is one of the simplest and tastiest fishcake recipes we know and they always prove to be hugely popular, especially with the dipping sauce. For a party, you can make them smaller and serve as canapés. Delicious.

Ingredients
(for around 16 fish cakes)

5 de-seeded red chillies
1 finely chopped shallot
2 finely chopped garlic cloves
1 small piece finely chopped galangal (available from the Chinese Supermarket in Montpelier)
2 lime leaves (available at the above Chinese supermarket- they’re so much cheaper that the big supermarkets and you buy a big bag of them (instead of three stale leaves in a jar) and you can freeze them and use them in curries etc when you need them.
450g white fish fillets (it doesn’t matter which fish you use – coley, cod, haddock etc are all good)
15ml fish sauce (get it from the Chinese supermarket!!
60g green beans sliced really finely
oil to fry
Pinch of salt

Method
Use a pestle and mortar to pound the chillies, shallots, garlic, galangal, lime leaves and salt into a fragrant paste.
Finely chop or blend the fish into a mince. Mix in the paste. Add the green beans and fish sauce. Knead the mixture with your hands.
Shape the mixture into small flat cakes (smaller that traditional British fishcakes). (No more than 5-6cm in diameter and 1 cm thick)
Heat the oil (do not let it get too hot) and cook the cakes until golden brown – takes about 2-3 minutes – don’t let the oil get too hot or the cakes will cook too quickly and get tough.

Sauce

Ingredients

125ml rice vinegar
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 inch piece of cucumber with skin
1 small carrot
3 finely sliced shallots
1 medium chilli, finely sliced
1 tablespoon ground roasted peanuts

Method
Boil the sugar and vinegar together until the sugar dissolves and leaves a thin syrup. Slice the cucumber, carrot and shallots into tiny pieces. Add these to the syrup along with the chilli.
Add the peanuts, stir and serve with the pancakes.