Trout Thai Fishcakes

Prep time: 30 minutes. Cooking time: 10 minutes. Serves three to four.

Ingredients

• 500g of trout fillets, pin-boned, skinned and cut into chunks
• 2½ tbsp red Thai curry paste
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp water
• ½ lime, squeezed
• 6 Thai basil leaves
• 4 Thai kaffir lime leaves (optional) 1
• 00g green beans, topped and tailed and cut into small pieces
• Salt and pepper to taste
• oil for frying

1. Place the trout pieces in a food processor with all the curry paste, sugar, fish sauce, egg and a splash of water. Blitz until you get a thick paste of almost peanut butter like consistency. The reason we add a little water is that trout fillets can be a little drier than a white fish, so this will help with the consistency.
2. Add the lime, basil, kaffir leaves and green beans, and mix together until evenly distributed. Add a pinch of salt and black pepper to taste. Some red curry paste can be a little salty depending on the brand so you may not need to add too much.
3. Heat a frying pan with a generous amount of sunflower or vegetable oil. You are not going to submerge the cakes in oil but fry them on both sides. Using 2 dessertspoons — not your fingers as it will stick — create a ball from the mixture and place into the oil. Once in the pan, squash it to get the fishcake shape. Fry for two minutes on each side until golden.
4. Serve with some Thai sweet chilli sauce. They are also delicious with a lemon garlic mayonnaise. A nice light salad with some pickled onions and cucumbers works very well with this dish.

(Find more inspiration for shoot lunches here.)

The inspiration behind trout Thai fishcakes

All my life I have been a huge fan of fishing. I will never forget being seven years old and landing a 3lb trout on my bubble float rig. We didn’t fly-fish back then — my father didn’t know how to — and the easiest way for my brother and me was to float-fish for them using maggots or freshly dug-up worms from the garden.

Five years ago, I eventually got around to fly-fishing. I always thought it was going to be a complicated thing to do, and in some ways it is. It certainly isn’t as simple as float-fishing, but it opened up a whole new world of angling. From learning lots about larvae, nymphs, dry-flies and lures, to stalking fish in chalkstream waters and floating lines, there was so much to take in.

It is complex but broken down the idea is simple. Tempt the fish with what they want to eat and they should take it.

I have always found fellow fly-fishermen to be some of the most helpful and friendly bunch going. They don’t hesitate to share their knowledge. If I have been trying without luck all morning and notice someone enjoying success, I’ll ask what they use. More often than not they will hand over a spare fly to give you success too. It’s a humbling and brilliant community — and the fish itself is a delicious reward.

I have eaten a great deal of trout. I have pan-fried, cold-smoked, hot-smoked, baked and barbecued it. I love it all. However, depending on the age and environment, trout can be a little earthy.

Cured and cold-smoked trout is perhaps my favourite, but these little Thai trout bites are a great party food and something a little different than the usual. I serve them with a sweet chilli dip and I promise you they don’t last long at all.