3 posts tagged “deep fried”
While I had fairly high hopes for this recipe, it far exceeded them. These cakes were truly excellent.
For the cakes:
1 lb boneless catfish cut into 1" pieces
1 tbsp fish sauce
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
2 tbsp fresh cilantro (coriander leaves), chopped
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
(Optional: fine, hard breadcrumbs for breading)
Peanut oil for deep frying
For the dipping sauce:
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp water
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp fish sauce
Lettuce, apple slices, cilantro and mint leaves
1. Use a food processor to coarsely chop the fish.
2. Add everything else, and run the food processor again. Don't make it into forcemeat though; it should still be a little chunky.
3. Shape into 2" patties. They will swell up quite about during cooking, so if you want them flat, you'll have to make them very flat. (Optional: bread them in fine, hard breadcrumbs).
4. Deep fry at 375°F for about 3-5 minutes.
The food is assembled at the table: The cakes are placed in a lettuce leaf along with mint, sliced apples, cilantro and a dipping sauce, wrapped up and eaten. You get plenty of veggies, and even some fruit with your meal. Gotta love that.
I was a bit skeptical about exactly how crispy these cakes would (but they turned out just fine), so I decided to bread a couple of them with some fine, hard breadcrumbs, and that turned out to be a good idea. This made them even crispier, and also gave them a more pleasing color, in my opinion. I'll definitely do that next time around.
I expected the cakes to be quite potent in flavor and spiciness, but they were surprisingly subtle. In fact the accoutrements sort of overwhelmed the flavor of the cakes themselves. Especially the lettuce, which was fairly bitter. It was very good, but I enjoyed eating the cakes on their own even more. I could increase the flavor components of the cakes — maybe even double them — but I might also find an entirely different method of serving them.
The first thing that came to mind would be to use a yogurt or sour cream dipping sauce with lime juice (maybe zest also), chopped mint and perhaps some honey (and possibly, also some finely chopped apple) — and double the amount of cayenne pepper in the cakes. Hot cakes and a cooling sauce. It'd make for a great hors d'oeuvre.
For the cakes:
1 lb boneless catfish cut into 1" pieces
1 tbsp fish sauce
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
2 tbsp fresh cilantro (coriander leaves), chopped
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
(Optional: fine, hard breadcrumbs for breading)
Peanut oil for deep frying
For the dipping sauce:
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp water
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp fish sauce
Lettuce, apple slices, cilantro and mint leaves
1. Use a food processor to coarsely chop the fish.
2. Add everything else, and run the food processor again. Don't make it into forcemeat though; it should still be a little chunky.
3. Shape into 2" patties. They will swell up quite about during cooking, so if you want them flat, you'll have to make them very flat. (Optional: bread them in fine, hard breadcrumbs).
4. Deep fry at 375°F for about 3-5 minutes.
I was a bit skeptical about exactly how crispy these cakes would (but they turned out just fine), so I decided to bread a couple of them with some fine, hard breadcrumbs, and that turned out to be a good idea. This made them even crispier, and also gave them a more pleasing color, in my opinion. I'll definitely do that next time around.
I expected the cakes to be quite potent in flavor and spiciness, but they were surprisingly subtle. In fact the accoutrements sort of overwhelmed the flavor of the cakes themselves. Especially the lettuce, which was fairly bitter. It was very good, but I enjoyed eating the cakes on their own even more. I could increase the flavor components of the cakes — maybe even double them — but I might also find an entirely different method of serving them.
The first thing that came to mind would be to use a yogurt or sour cream dipping sauce with lime juice (maybe zest also), chopped mint and perhaps some honey (and possibly, also some finely chopped apple) — and double the amount of cayenne pepper in the cakes. Hot cakes and a cooling sauce. It'd make for a great hors d'oeuvre.
This is great stuff -- good for company too, since your guests can just assemble their own stuff. Again, I used panko breadcrumbs. Beautiful, crispy texture. I used some sour cream with cayenne, if I remember correctly. Well worth the hassle of deep frying.
A great, standard Chinese restaurant classic. But it didn't turn out as good as the last time I made it. Not as crispy, not as flavorful a sauce, and not as good a color. I've got no idea what I did wrong. But that's the purpose of this blog, I guess...
