Thai fish cake with thai chilli sauce

Everytime on the way to catch the bus to uni, I would walk pass this little Thai take way place in Westfield,Parramatta to buy their fish cakes. The price of their fish cakes are a rip off but for Australian standards it's pretty cheap. It costs me 1AUD for a thin fish cake. I made once in Sydney using ready made red curry paste in a tin but it was very salty and didn't taste anything like the ones I bought from the take over shop. Mum didn't allow me to make it again but apparently it was costly. Every damn thing is costly in Sydney, it was frustrating. Coming to Malaysia for just under 3 weeks I missed my almost daily dose of fish cakes. Having made one really good thai green curry from my one and only Thai cookbook and another really disastrous sweet dish, I wanted to try another recipe to convince myself my purchase

was not to waste.

Adapted from Thai Street Food - David Thompson

Sauce

2 fresh long red chillies

1-4 chilli padi

good pinch of salt

2 coriander roots,cleaned

1 large garlic clove,chopped

1/4cup vinegar

1/4cup caster sugar

Red curry paste

5 dried long red chillies

10 chilli padi

good pinch of salt

1 tablespoon chopped galangal

2 tablespoon chopped lemongrass

2 teaspoon finely chopped kaffir lime leaves

1 tablespoon chopped ginger

2 1/2 tablespoon chopped garlic

2 teaspoon shrimp paste

400g Spanish mackerel fillet

2 tablespoon fish sauce

1tablespoon sugar

1 egg

5 long beans(snake beans) finely sliced

pinch of salt

vegetable oil,for deep frying

• First make the sauce.Chop all ingredients for the sauce and put into a bowl.Add vinegar & sugar, mix until well combined. Pour everything into a blender and wizz for two seconds, creating a coarse chilli sauce ( that is the best way I could describe it)
• Second make the curry paste. Soak dried chillies in hot water for about 10 minutes. Remove dried chillies from hot water and roughly chop them.Roughly chop chilli padi .Using a pestle & mortar ( you can use a blender/food processor), pound chillies with salt, then add the remaining ingredients in the order they are listed,reducing each one to a fine paste before adding the next.
• Mince fish. Scrap flesh away from the skin with the edge of a spoon.Place the fish in a pestle & mortar and pound until it is sticky yet firm.

• Combine mince fish & curry paste, add egg then season with sugar and fish sauce. Mix properly before adding beans.
• Check seasoning.I tried it raw or you can deep fry a little to test the seasoning.Grease your hand slightly,shape the fish cake mixture small discs.
• Pour deep frying oil into a large,stable wok until it is about 2/3 full.Heat the oil over a medium-high flame until a cooking thermometer registers 180C.
• Deep fry the fish cakes-only few at a time,turning them once or twice to promote even cooking.The fish cakes should be ready when they start floating to the surface and slightly puffed.Drain on paper towels.Repeat with the remaining fish cakes.
• Serve with chilli sauce.