Fish Cakes #2

(click to enlarge)	Fish Cakes #2 Thailand
	Makes: Effort: Sched: DoAhead:	20 cakes *** 1-1/4 hrs Yes	In Thailand the proper and acceptable fish for fish cakes is Featherback, but this recipe, written by a Laotian refugee in Hawaii, is a little more tolerant - and figures you don't have featherbacks.
If you do have Featherbacks (or Featherback Paste), see Fish Cakes #1. You still need to serve these with Cucumber Sauce, though - we're not going to be that tolerant.

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Fish (1)
Long Beans (2)
Onion
Chili, red (4)
Cilantro
Lemon Grass (3)
Fish Sauce
Eggs
Cornstarch
Sugar
Oil, deep fry
-- Serve With
Cuke Sauce (5)

Prep

Chop FISH fine, but not food processor fine.
Slice BEANS thin crosswise. Chop ONION fine. Seed CHILIS and chop fine. Chop CILANTRO fine. Mix all with Fish.
Peel tough outer leaves from LEMON GRASS and cut off hard root end. Smash the bottom 5 inches with your kitchen mallet and slice crosswise as thin as you can get it. Chop fine and mix with Fish. I usually pound it in my big granite mortar after chopping to soften it up.
Mix Fish Sauce, Eggs, Cornstarch and Sugar into Fish. Mix thoroughly (see below).

Run

In a kadhai, wok or deep skillet heat Oil for deep frying to 350°F/175°C. (see Note-6).
With very wet hands form a few small pancakes from the fish paste, about 1/4 inch thick and about 2 inches across (see Note-6).
Slide them a few at a time into the oil and fry turning several times until lightly browned. They are done when they float high and are elastic when tapped. Scoop them out and drain on paper towels.
Serve warm or at room temperature with plenty of Cucumber Sauce. I find cutting them into wide slices for serving works quite well too.

NOTES:

Fish:
While the unique texture of Featherback makes it the essential fish cake fish in Thailand, your local supermarket is highly unlikely to stock that fish. This recipe works with any fish that's a bit bland and not too firm. I used this recipe for a farm raised steelhead, the flesh of which was bland and almost paste-like, perfect for fish cakes and worthless for anything else. The cakes had a bit of a salmon flavor, but that isn't necessarily bad. If you're curious about Featherbacks, see our Featherback page.
Long Beans:
These are thinner and have a much darker, sweeter flavor than the common green beans - they are most like fresh young blackeye pea pods. Long Beans are very available in Southern California, but I'm not sure about other regions. Use round green beans chopped small if you can't get them, but increase the quantity just a little. For details see our Long Beans page.
Lemon Grass:
For details see our Lemon Grass page.
Red Chili:
Around here we all use Fresnos, but Holland Red or other medium hot chili will do fine. For details see our Thai Chilis page.
Cucumber Sauce:
This sauce is considered essential with fish cakes. For a recipe see our recipe Cucumber Sauce.
Technique:
These methods have made the job much easier for me.
- Mixing: I've seen times given from 5 minutes to 25 minutes by hand or 10 minutes by paddle mixer. More seems better so I use a stand mixer about 8 minutes with the paddle attachment. The result should be viscous, sticky and with a shiny appearance.
- Forming: I've found a base coat of oil on my hands before applying water is very helpful. Just massage an oil saturated paper towel, then a few seconds under running water.
- Forming: I lay out a sheet of parchment paper and oil it well. When I've formed a cake I shake it off my hand onto the paper and poke into shape.
- Transferring to oil. When the oil is up to temperature I use a thin, clean, dry stainless slotted turner. I dip it in the hot oil and then pick up cakes off the oiled paper and slip them into the oil. I then use a wooden turner to poke them around (the metal turner would become difficult to clean). Turning them over several times works best. I lift them out with a deep fry strainer and drain on paper towels. I then clean and dry the metal turner for the next batch,
- Oil: I use Olive Pomace, a very high temperature oil with no olive flavor. Originally these were probably made in lard, which is lower temperature but very fine indeed, but the AHA has scared people from using it, though it's far less dangerous than the trans fats they told us to use instead. Actually, its health profile is better than butter. For details see our Lard page.
- Frying: I find 1-1/2 inches of oil in the bottom of my kadhai is fine for 5 cakes at a time and that depth should be good for a wok as well. A skillet may get by with an inch, but that will still take more oil. I turn the heat off when I have removed a batch and don't turn it back on until the next batch is formed, but it takes only a couple minutes to get back to temperature.
- Texture: The cakes should be firm and somewhat elastic, not as elastic as featherback, but definitely not mushy or flaky.
U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch, ar=as required tt=to taste

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Fish Cakes #2

Fish:

Long Beans:

Lemon Grass:

Red Chili:

Cucumber Sauce:

Technique: