Crayfish Fishcakes

In a desperate try to get a decent spicy fishcake, I tried using a tub of crayfish bought from the local supermarket – a few tweeks here and there, and voila – delish!

Ingredients (Serves 2 hungry people):

• 1 Tub of peeled crayfish tails
• 1 tbsp of Thai fish sauce
• 1 chopped green chilli
• 1 tbsp of red thai curry paste
• 1 small piece of ginger – grated
• 1 clove of garlic – roughly chopped
• 2 tbsps of chopped fresh coriander (inc stalks)
• Juice of ½ lime
• ½ tsp sugar (ideally palm sugar but any will do)
• 1 tbsp of dried breadcrumbs
• 2 eggs – beaten
• 1 tsp chopped thai basil leaves
• Veg oil for shallow frying

Put the crayfish, fish sauce, chilli, paste, ginger, garlic, lime into a blender and blitz for a very short while – but make sure it is roughly chopped and not too fine. Put this mix into a bowl and combine with the eggs, breadcrumbs, coriander, and basil and ensure the mixture is well mixed together. You should be able to form little patties of the mixture and they should keep their shape. If the mixture is a little liquid, add a few more breadcrumbs. Fry the patties in vegetable oil and make sure they are well cooked on one side before turning over. Serve with some sweet chilli dipping sauce and maybe some cucumber relish.

Chickpea Mash!

No, I’m sorry – it just does not do it for me. Tried a couple of recipes and both tasted of nothing! I’ll stick to humous or similar.

Salsa

I’ve been a little off cooking this last month. A sort of winter blues followed by a boringly long cold spell – which is still going on – and my abstinence from booze. Add to that a troublesome root canal job that drains my pocket and you will understand why I’m a little brassed off! Still I’m soldiering on and I feel like conjuring up a few tasty morsels! Maybe spring can be seen around the corner.

I enjoyed a piece of very fresh sea bass the other day and it was served up with some lovely tomato salsa. I’m not sure I recreated it correctly but it certainly made the right impression, so here goes.

Ingredients (Serve 4 as garnish):

• 4 ripe tomatoes
• 1 red pepper
• 1 red onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 ½ Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
• Fresh Basil (optional)
• 10 Cheery tomatoes
• Salt & Freshly ground Pepper

Cut the tomatoes in half and deseed and the same with the red pepper. Sprinkle with oil and place on a tray and heat in a 160deg C oven for about 30 mins until soft and cooked. Chop the red onion and fry in oil with the garlic until soft and clear (medium heat). Remove the tomatoes and pepper from the oven, chop and add to the frying pan. Add the balsamic vinegar salt and pepper and stir well. Turn down the heat and the cherry tomatoes which have been halved. Gently fry until the cherry tomatoes are just beginning to soften. At this point you can add a few chopped basil leaves and stir in. Leave to one side and serve with say Sea Bass and Parmentier potatoes.