Thai Style Vegan Fish Cakes

I was inspired to make this recipe after experimenting with making different kinds of vegetable patties. I quickly remembered the flaky, golden crumbliness of fish cakes and decided to make my own. It’s tough to mimic the flavor of fish cakes; however, it is a lot easier to create a Thai inspired vegan fish cake that holds to standard. In this recipe, I’ve incorporated classic Thai flavors with the addition of flakey and smooth textures from using banana blossom and heart of palm. This marriage of texture and flavor creates a delicious mock meal. I’d also suggest adding in some dried seaweed as this will hint at oceanic flavors. The best way to serve this is hot with some sweet chili sauce on the side.

Recipe Type: Appetizers Hearty Entrees

YIELDS 10 - 12 patties

PREP TIME 35 min

COOK TIME 15 min

TOTAL TIME 50 min

Half of the juice of a Lime
1 inch Grated ginger
1 tin (or 1 cup) Palm of heart
1 tin (or 1 cup) Banana blossom
1 tbsp Soy sauce
2 tbsp Red Thai curry paste
1 tbsp Agave nectar
A sprinkle of Dried seaweed
1 tbsp Vegan mayonaise
16 ounces Potatoes
2 cups Plain flour
2 cups Panko breadcrumbs
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
200 ml Plant milk

Directions

1. Start by boiling half of your potatoes until they’re very soft. Then drain them and mash them up with the addition of the vegan mayonnaise.

2. In a blender, blend the lime juice, grated ginger, soy sauce, tamarind, red Thai paste, dried seaweed, chillies and agave nectar until the mixture is cohesive.

3. After this, add in the drained, palm of hearts and banana blossom. Blitz until you have fish like flakes. Don’t over mix it into a mush, as you’ll want to leave some texture.

4. Grate the other half of your potatoes and add them into the mixture with the mashed potato. Then sieve in half of the flour to thicken up the mixture.

5. After this, put the milk, flour and panko breadcrumbs in three separate shallow dishes. Add in the paprika and cayenne pepper to the panko breadcrumb mixture.

6. Form the mixture into patties and start by coating the patty in the flour, then the milk and then the panko breadcrumb mixture.

7. When you’ve done this with all of your patties turn the hob onto a relatively high heat and heat up some sunflower oil in a pan to shallow fry the patties. To make sure the oil is hot enough, place a piece of bread in first. If it starts to bubble the oil is hot enough to cook the patties in. Cook the patties for around 1 to 2 minutes on both sides. Once you’ve cooked all the patties you can serve up straight away or refrigerate and save them for a couple of days. I like to serve mine straight away with a side of sweet chili sauce.

Photo: Hannah Roberts