Time for Thai

At long last – we have SUN!  After a week of torrential rain, finally some golden rays!  Of course, it has also meant some busy time in the garden and with my vegetable patch – such a shame that the rain needed to make the veggies grow also makes the weeds! The hens and I have been out digging and hoeing (as soon as they see the spade they are with me knowing a good feed of  worms is coming) and everything looks a little back in control again.

In the past week when it was too wet to go out, I was having a bit of a declutter and came across an old metal steamer of my mum’s.  It is battered and lost its lid but couldn’t bring myself to throw it out so I asked around for some suggestions.  Don’t know why I never thought of it but, because as it already has holes in it, the main one was for a planter!  I have a herb garden in pots (no weeding and no running into each other) outside but I thought I could use it for my favourite herbs, coriander, parsley and tarragon – and this is the result, painted and decoupaged, to sit on the kitchen window sill.

This is a very long winded way of leading you into this week’s recipe but because of the heady scent of coriander now permeating the kitchen and because of the sunlight filtering through the window, I thought of Thai fishcakes – a nice light meal for the weather and easy to do so you can go outside and enjoy it.  You’ve probably got lots of recipes for these cakes but I do hope you will give my version a go too!

THAI FISH CAKES WITH A DIPPING SAUCE

• 1 tablespoon red thai curry paste (yes, I know you can make your own but when there are so many good ones in jars, honestly, why bother?)
•  1 small egg
• 150g cod cut into chunks
•  1 tablespoon thai fish sauce (don’t worry if you have to buy a bottle specially for this as it lasts for ages and we will use it again )
•  1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornflour
• 1 -2 kaffir lime leaves, chopped (you can buy these fresh, dried or frozen)
•  1/2 dozen fine green beans, chopped
•  oil for deep frying

Beat the curry paste, egg and fish until smooth.  Place in a bowl and combine with the rest of the ingredients.  Shape into little cakes and deep-fry  for 4 – 5 minutes until golden and drain on kitchen paper.

DIPPING SAUCE  Bring 30 ml of water to the boil with 50 ml of rice vinegar and 25g sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves and cool.  Add 1/2 cucumber, peeled and chopped, 1 garlic clove, crushed, 2 shallots, finely chopped and some grated ginger to taste.

Serve the cakes on watercress and/or spinach or stir fry some pak choi with beansprouts, sauce on the side.