Thai fish cakes, vegetarian style

Some years ago, I regularly received free mini magazines from the Nestle food company. I don't know how I got on their mailing list, but the magazines would arrive in my letterbox every month or two and I loved getting them. Thinking about it now, I also don't know why I stopped receiving them, and can't help but wish they still found their way to my letterbox today.

The magazines were, of course, really an advertising system. They talked about existing and new Nestle products, and provided recipes for things you could make with the Nestle range. I didn't mind. New products make me happy and I'll take recipe ideas in most forms.

One of the recipes I tucked away was for Sweet chilli Thai fish cakes. Of course, the recipe called for Nestle-owned Maggi sweet chilli sauce, as well as Maggi coconut milk powder. My version has never included coconut milk powder, for the simple reason that I never buy it, and has always involved the Trident brand of sweet chilli sauce, for the simple reason that I always buy that.

I may not have been the follow-the-recipe-exactly customer that Nestle was hoping for.

Nonetheless, my version of the Thai fish cakes became an occasional stand-by meal, and when Mr Bite entered the picture, I found that he enjoyed them too.

Prior to last year, I always made them with tuna and an egg, as per the ingredient list. Last year I found that commercial egg replacer works well instead of real egg. And last week I found that beans work well instead of tuna.

Very well in fact.

Even though I still eat fish sometimes, I do like to keep my intake occasional, and if there are vegetarian alternatives they are generally my first preference. I was thus quite delighted to discover that making these with tuna and with beans is easy (yet another two-way meal!), and the product is equally enjoyable both ways.

The sweet chilli and coriander (cilantro) flavours are part of what makes this recipe so appealing to me. The cakes are light and fresh, and can be served just with salad or with slightly denser sides; bread rolls, potato wedges, or even in wraps.

Thai fish cakes; tuna and vegetarian varieties

Adapted from a Nestle recipe for sweet chilli Thai fish cakes

Makes 16 - 20 cakes

Vegan if using the vegetarian ingredients and egg replacer

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Ingredients

2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

3 pieces slightly old bread, crusts removed and crumbled into crumbs (or ~1/4 cup + 1 tbsp commercial bread crumbs)

Egg replacer to the equivalent of 1 egg, or 1 egg 

1 celery stick, sliced

1/4 cup sweet chilli sauce

1 tsp lemon rind or lemon juice

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves

Pepper, to taste

For tuna: 425g can tuna in springwater, drained

For vegetarian: 425g can butter beans (or beans of choice), drained and roughly crushed

Oil spray for the pan

Method

Cook the potatoes in boiling water until tender (about 15 minutes). Drain and mash roughly with a fork. Allow to cool slightly.

Add all ingredients except the tuna or beans to the potato. Mix well to combine. Add the tuna or beans. You can make half of each.

Refrigerate the mixture for an hour.

Heat a non-stick pan on medium-high heat and spray with oil spray. Use a spoon or your hands to roughly shape small patties, and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side until lightly golden.

 (I tend to cook 3 - 4 patties in the pan at once, and then keep them warm in an oven that's been pre-heated to 100'C whilst I cook the rest.)

Vegetarian on the top; tuna at the bottom

These are fairly soft fish cakes, but you could make them crispier by using more oil and semi-frying them. I like them slightly soft, and the mixture of flavours allows for a slight sweetness that is perfectly offset by the hints of lemon and pepper, the coriander, and the chilli component of the sweet chilli sauce.

The bean version didn't taste identical to the tuna, of course, but the texture was remarkably similar. I didn't do a great job of crushing my beans (as evidenced by whole beans being visible in my cakes!) but that didn't seem to matter. The bean version was also lighter than the tuna cakes, and perhaps slightly less sweet.

Chickpeas or cannelloni beans would work well as alternative bean choices, and I only chose butter beans because I had the greatest number of tins of those in the pantry. I suspect I will be making these again quite a few times, so I should have opportunities to experiment with the full range of options.


Now, in other news - remember those bugs I inhaled when running on Wednesday? On Thursday, I developed a cough. On Friday, my lungs hurt. Over the last 24 hours, I've found my voice to stop working in any reliable manner. It seems I have a chest infection.

The idea of bugs in my lungs makes me very unhappy indeed and I am rather looking forward to completing my course of antibiotics so I can have some assurance that they are gone!

Have you hit on any good recipes from free recipe brochures or magazines?
Have you ever had problems result from inhaling or otherwise being attacked by flies or bugs?!

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A Jamie Oliver inspired dinner: Smoked salmon with asparagus and optional eggs

I will confess to chuckling to myself as I wrote the above title. I think it must rank as one of the least likely post titles to appear on my blog.

I mean, eggs?!

Sometimes, though, unexpected things come out of my kitchen. This dinner was one such example.

We actually have smoked salmon semi-regularly during Summer - perhaps once a month. Paired with salad and cooked and cooled potatoes, it's an easy weeknight dinner for hot days.

The fact that Mr Bite and I can have the exact same thing (salad dressing differences aside) is also a bonus, and I have come to enjoy smoked salmon more and more with age.

Eggs, though, do not usually feature. Nor does asparagus.

The reason for the change? Jamie Oliver's Great Britain, a series that I think aired in Australia last year, but which we are still working our way through now (all of our TV viewing is done off the PVR, so we are often many months out from when things were first shown).

One of Jamie's episodes featured asparagus, and the serving suggestion of asparagus, smoked salmon and poached eggs appealed to Mr Bite. Given that the meal looked easy to put together, I was more than happy to oblige and give it a try.

The thing that made this dish interesting (or at least, made it interesting to me) was how the eggs were poached. When I have poached eggs in the past, they went straight into boiling water, perhaps with some vinegar to help keep them together, but that was the extent of it.

This cooking method is slightly different.

In effect, you line a small cup or ramekin with cling wrap, into which you place seasoning as desired. In Mr Bite's, I put a dab of butter, pepper and dried parsley, which I think approximated what we watched Jamie do. You then crack an egg into each cup, gather the plastic wrap to make a little parcel, twist the plastic wrap tightly, and then immerse the whole parcel in your boiling water and simmer for 2 - 5 minutes, or however long you like to poach your eggs for.

The result is quite attractive, even to someone who doesn't eat eggs!

Picture this with added potato; and then with potato but no eggs for my plate :)

We both agreed that the asparagus (which I just steamed) and smoked salmon paired very well together. Mr Bite liked the egg component too, including the seasoning. We had our usual cold potatoes on the side, but I think some fresh bread might suit the ingredients better and I would try that in future.

This was the first time I'd had asparagus in a number of years, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The contrasting intensity of the salmon contributed to this, but I think I'll be trying asparagus in other dishes in the near future too.

All in all, however you make and modify this dish, it is easy and we both enjoyed our versions. The cost for 2 people was also about half of that for a take-away pizza, thereby highlighting that even 'expensive' food (something smoked salmon and asparagus have a reputation for) can be cheaper and quicker to prepare than something you buy ready made.

Do you enjoy asparagus? How about smoked salmon?
Any favourite Jamie Oliver dishes?

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Fish parcel surprise

It seems a little odd to be posting a fish recipe. Clearly, most of the recipes I post are vegan or vegetarian, and the same goes for most of the products I eat and discuss. However, I do still eat fish, usually one serve per week, and this recipe seemed worth sharing.

(If you find it odd that I eat fish and not eggs or cheese, please bear with me!)

I first tried this recipe a month or so ago, when Mr Bite and I had our respective parents over for dinner. I like to have oven-based dishes on such occasions, so I'm not worrying about cooking food on the stove top or trying to get things hot at the last minute.

On that night, I actually didn't like this much at all. I was also concerned that the favourable feedback from the rest of the table was polite, rather than genuine, praise. However, when Mr Bite asked for it again, I knew he must have liked it - and thought perhaps I should give it a second go myself.

I'm glad I did, as the second time around I enjoyed this. I now suspect that my first parcel had the dregs of the sauce mixture, which would explain the sub-optimal result then.

Lime and Sweet Chilli Fish Parcels

Adapted from Taste.com.au

Makes 4 parcels

Ingredients:

• 4 fish fillets, ~100g each (I used New Zealand Hake)
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup coriander leaves, chopped
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 2 - 3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely sliced
• 1 small capsicum, finely sliced

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 200'C. Tear 4 large pieces of aluminum foil and set them aside.
• Combine coriander, brown sugar, soy sauce, lime juice and sweet chilli sauce in a jug or bowl. Mix well.
• Place one fish fillet in the centre of each aluminium foil piece. Drizzle 1/4 of the sauce over each fish fillet. Top with sliced shallot, carrot and capsicum.
• Bring the long sides of the aluminium foil together, and fold over at the top twice. Bring in the short sides to form a parcel, with a seam running along the top.
• Bake in prepared oven for 15 minutes, or until fish is cooked through. 
• Serve with rice and extra vegetables. Or anything you fancy.

This really is incredibly easy, and of course the sauce and filling can be varied to taste.

If you eat fish, do you have a favourite preparation method? Or a favourite type of fish?

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