Thai food is delicious and a consistent rotation in our house for dinners. Curries and pad thai are the usual suspects, with heaps of steaming jasmine rice. But there is so much more to Thai food than those popular dishes. One dish we love is Thai fish cakes – flavorful and easy to make at home, too!
I suppose you could call it a Thai version of a salmon patty or crab cake but it’s pretty different as far as flavors. I recently made this for the hubs as his first meal back home after a week of travel for work. He loves to have a home-cooked meal after eating out for every meal when traveling and I love for us to catch up over a yummy meal. Win win!
There is some prep to this dish as far as finely slicing green beans and scallion but most of the ingredients go in the food processor.
The patty meat is then ready for cooking.
Form it into small patties and cook in peanut oil in a nonstick skillet until browned on both sides.
The result is crisp on the outside, warm on the inside with an infusion of spices from the Thai red curry paste and fresh vegetables.
I serve them on a bed of arugula that I dress with my homemade Orange-Ginger Vinaigrette, and a side of jasmine rice.
For this most recent version, I whipped some Siriacha aioli at the request of my husband and we drizzled that over the cakes. De-licious!
- 1 lb white fish filets (can use tilapia, cod, grouper, etc.)
- 3 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1 Tbsp fish sauce
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/2 cup cilantro leaves
- 1 red chili, roughly chopped
- 4 tsp red curry paste
- 3/4 cups green beans, very thinly slices
- 2 spring onions, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup peanut oil, for frying
- Process fish in a food processor for 20 seconds or until smooth.
- Add the cornstarch, fish sauce, beaten egg, cilantro, chili and curry paste and process for 10 seconds or until well combined.
- Transfer fish mixture to a large bowl.
- Add green beans and spring onions and mix well.
- Using wet hands, form two rounded tablespoons of the mixture into a flattish patty.
- Heat the oil in a nonstick skillet/pan over medium heat.
- Cook 3-4 fish cakes at a time until they are dark golden brown on each side.
- Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.