Spicy Thai Squid Salad

This recipe is inspired by one I found on the New York Times Cooking website.  It was a hit at the last family dinner.  I served it as an appie, in shot glasses.  


To make eight “apple” servings

Rhubarb Chutney

 What to do with all that spring rhubarb?  I’ve made rhubarb-strawberry jam and rhubarb relish in the last few years.  Time to find something new- Rhubarb chutney.  This recipe is based on one from a New York Times Héritage Cookbook recipe.  It would be a great addition to a charcuterie board or served with a roast pork.

Rhubarb can be incredibly “brown”- lol.  To add more colour, I infused the vinegar with a handful of bright red hibiscus petals and replaced the raisins with dried cranberries -  the result was not bright red, but better than “boring” brown.  Here is the recipe.

Makes approximately 12 x 250 ml jars.

Ingredients

8 cups    sliced rhubarb

6 cups    sliced onions

2 cups    dried cranberries (or 2 cups raisins)

7 cups    light brown sugar.

1/4 cup    approx. dried hibiscus petals (optional, for better colour)

4 cups    apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp    salt

2 tsp      cinnamon

2 tsp      ground ginger

1 tsp      ground cloves

1/8 tsp    cayenne pepper (you can add more cayenne to add heat)

Directions:

Warm the apple cider vinegar and gently stir in the hibiscus petals.  Turn off the heat and allow to sit for about 15 minutes.  Strain out the petals.

Combine all the other ingredients (including the strained vinegar) in a heavy kettle.  Bring to a boil and simmer gently until slightly thickened- about 45 minutes- less if you want to maintain some of its texture.  Stir frequently to prevent sticking.  

When the texture pleases you, give it a taste.  Add more cayenne or other spices if you wish.

Pour into the cleaned canning jars and process in a steam canner for ten minutes.

Cooking Class - Thai - Fishcakes with Spicy Cucumber Relish

I love making fish cakes, shrimp cakes- all kings of tasty “cakes”.  These Thai fishcakes are quick and easy to make and they are so delicious.  Served with the spicy cucumber relish- Thai heaven!

This is a Gordon Ramsay recipe.  He recommends eating the fish cakes “freshly made” as they do not reheat well.

What Phil (learning to cook) and I (always learning new food “tricks” and happy to teach):

-    Read the recipe through before you prepare the mise en place; read it again.  We forgot to add the Thai red curry paste to the fish mixture. Our sample tasted great, but a little bland.  We double checked the recipe and sure enough had forgotten the curry paste.  Since we hadn’t yet made the fish cakes, it was easy to add to the mixture.

-    We simmered the cucumber relish dressing too long and ended up with very little liquid for a dressing.  It was worth making a new batch.

 To make approximately 10 cakes,

Ingredients

250 gr    skinless white fish fillets (I used haddock)

250 gr    large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 tbsp    Thai red curry paste

1            Kaffir lime leaf, finely shredded (or finely grated zest of a lime)

1 tbsp    chopped cilantro

1 med.   egg

1 tsp      brown sugar

1 tsp      Fish Sauce

Pinch of sea salt

1/4 cup  fresh green beans, trimmed and thinly sliced

Vegetable oil for shallow frying

Spicy Cucumber Relish

1        cucumber

1/2     small red chile, seeded and thinly sliced

1         shallot, peeled and finely sliced

juice of 2 limes (or about 1 1/2 tbsp bottled lime juice)

2 tbsp   superfine sugar (I used regular sugar)

1/2 tsp   sea salt

2-3 tbsp water

Small handful of cilantro leaves, roughly chopped

Small handful of mint leaves, roughly chopped

Directions

Cucumber relish:

Peel the cucumber, then scoop out the seeds in the center with a teaspoon.  Thinly slice the cucumber diagonally and place in a bowl.  Add the chile and shallot, toss to mix and set aside.

Put the lime juice, sugar, salt and water into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Stir to dissolve the sugar.  Let simmer fora few minutes then set aside to cool completely.

Fshcakes;

Put all the ingredients for the fishcakes, except the green beans and oil, into a food processor and pulse to a finely chopped wet paste.  Do not over process, as you want to keep some of the texture to the fishcakes.

Scrape the mixture into a bowl and stir in the green beans.  To check the seasoning, cook a little ball of the mixture in an oiled pan and taste, then adjust the seasoning if needed- more sugar, more salt.   With wet hands, shape the mixture into small patties about two inches (2 tbsp of mixture).

Heat a one-inch depth of oil in a deep skillet or wok.  Shallow-fry the patties in batches for about 1-2 minutes per side, until golden brown.  Keep warm in the oven until ready to serve/

When the fishcakes are ready to serve, pour the dressing over the cucumber relish and stir in the chopped herbs.  Serve the fishcakes hot, with cucumber relish on the side.