Thai fishcakes

If you’re craving something crisp, packed with flavour and full of fresh herbs and zingy spice flavours, nothing else will do: you need Thai fishcakes. This recipe uses creamed coconut, which gives you a really velvety texture inside the fishcake, along with a powder-crisp surface.

I really enjoy a little pile of fishcakes with rice and a vegetable as a main course or on their own with salad for a starter, but these are also great for serving as canapes at large parties. To make about 20 little fishcakes, you’ll need:

1 stem lemongrass
3 cloves garlic
1 thumb-sized piece galangal (substitute ginger if you can’t find any)
4 kaffir lime leaves
zest of 1 lime
1 bird’s eye chilli
1 large handful fresh coriander
½ red pepper
100g creamed coconut
1lb white fish, filleted (I used haddock)
salt and pepper
flour for coating

Peel the lemongrass, galangal and garlic and put them in the food processor with the lime leaves, zest, chilli, coriander, red pepper and creamed coconut. Whizz until everything is finely chopped. Add the fish and seasoning, and pulse until the fish is incorporated but not sloppy.

Remove the mixture to a bowl, and form into little fishcakes with a diameter the length of your thumb. (See picture for thickness.) Dip each Thai fishcake into plain flour and fry in hot oil for about four minutes per side, until golden brown. You should fry these in batches of about six to avoid crowding your pan – keep cooked fishcakes in a cool oven until they are all ready.

I served these with some blended lime juice and fish sauce, and some Thai sweet chilli sauce.

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