Lemongrass and ginger thai-style fish cakes
Restaurant style fish cakes, straight from the freezer
These fragrant, delicate fish cakes, with their lovely, bouncy texture are such a winner for the freezer. Taking only ten-ish minutes to cook from frozen, they save you from hunger AND distraction on a busy WFH day.
This recipe is an exclusive from my latest book, Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Batch Cookbook(opens in new tab), and it’s exactly the sort of recipe that proves batch cooking doesn’t have to mean endless stews, casseroles and meals that all look suspiciously beige. We can have fish cakes too!
What’s in the Thai fish cakes?
The fish cakes are packed with white fish and king prawns, then loaded with Thai-inspired flavour from Thai curry paste, lemongrass, fresh ginger, garlic, fish sauce, palm sugar and light soy sauce. The classics!
The result is savoury, fragrant and slightly spicy, with that lovely springy texture you want from a good fish cake. Serve them with rice noodles, steamed rice, stir-fried greens or some pickled veg to make it into a full on meal.
Why batch?
I don’t think batch cooking should mean making five portions of the same stew and eating it until you never want to see a casserole dish again. I want freezer food with variety! Sometimes I want something hearty and comforting, and sometimes I want something lighter that still feels like a proper dinner.
These fish cakes are perfect for that. They’re filling without being heavy, incredibly low-effort to serve and can be paired with whatever quick sides you have knocking about. A bowl of rice noodles, some crunchy pickled veg and a dipping sauce? Dinner sorted.
Batch cooking has also been a lifesaver for me since having my baby. The time I save by having homemade meals ready to go is genuinely worth its weight in gold. Instead of starting dinner from scratch when everyone is hungry and I’ve got approximately 17 other things to do, I can pull something from the freezer and have a seriously good meal on the table in minutes. Everyone is happy.
Can I eat them immediately?
Absolutely. If you’re making these for dinner tonight, refrigerate the uncooked patties for at least 1 hour first. This helps them firm up so they hold their shape when frying.
Heat a little oil in a frying pan over a medium heat, then fry the fish cakes in batches for 3–4 minutes on each side, until golden, piping hot and cooked through.
Can I freeze them?
It wouldn’t be a very good batch recipe if you couldn’t…
Freeze the raw fish cakes on a tray until solid, then transfer them to an airtight container or freezer bag. They’ll keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Freezing them individually first means they won’t stick together in one giant fish-cake brick, which is useful if you only want to cook a couple at a time.
Can I cook these fish cakes from frozen?
Yep. No defrosting required.
Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan over a medium-low heat, then cook the frozen fish cakes in batches for around 5–6 minutes on each side. Turn them carefully and cook until golden, piping hot and cooked through.
Because they’re being cooked from frozen, keeping the heat slightly lower gives the middle time to cook without the outside catching.
Lemongrass and ginger thai-style fish cakes
By Poppy Cooks
https://www.poppycooks.com/recipes/lemongrass-and-ginger-thai-style-fish-cakes/
Ingredients
For the fishcakes
- 500g skinless, boneless cod or haddock
- 200g shelled raw king prawns
- 3 tbsp green Thai curry paste
- 2 lemongrass sticks, bashed and roughly chopped
- 50g fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1-2 tbsp fish sauce, to taste
- 2 tsp palm sugar
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 eggs
- About 200g cornflour
- Olive oil to finish
Metric
Imperial
Serving suggestions (optional)
- Sweet chilli sauce
- Pickled veg
- Cooked rice noodles
- Thai basil and mint
- Lime wedges
Metric
Imperial
Instructions
- Tip the fish, king prawns, curry paste, lemongrass, ginger, garlic, fish sauce, palm sugar and soy sauce into a food processor. Crack in the eggs and blitz to a paste. Tip the mixture into a bowl and mix through enough cornflour to make a wet dough (you may not need all 200g, so add it in batches).
- Wet your hands so that the mixture doesn't stick, then weigh out 16 equal balls of mixture (about 70g each), forming them into patty shapes about 2cm thick. Place the patties on a well-oiled baking tray - they will feel really wet, but that's normal!
- To eat now - refridgerate the patties for at least 1 hour to firm up. Heat a little oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. In batches, fry the fish cakes for 3-4 mins on each side, until cooked through, piping hot and golden. Or you can freeze the raw fish cakes in an airtight container for up to 3 months.