These Indian style fish cakes are packed with the amazing flavours of Goa
My grandfather's fish cakes done Indian style
I was never a big fan of fish cakes until I came across a hand written recipe in a cookbook my grandfather used to keep. I happened upon it by chance one day while cleaning out his basement and after dusting it off, decided to give some of the recipe a try. Like most of his recipes, this was an Italian recipe which presumably was handed down to him from his parents or grandparents who immigrated to the US from Italy in 1850.
Most recipes for fish cakes that I have come across ask for egg. The egg helps the fish cakes stay together. Personally I find that this gives them a spongy texture that I’m not that crazy about. This recipe, however does it differently. 200g of cod is placed in a food processor and blended to a paste which helps cement the fish cakes together.
With a little experimentation, I came up with this rather Indian version. I love Goan food so I have included many of the herbs and spices that are popular in the region.
The optional red pepper sauce that accompanies the dish is one I’ve made as long as I can remember.
I used to serve it with Mexican dishes but all the ingredients are also used in Indian cooking so it works really well here.
Serves 4 – 6
for the sauce
3 red bell peppers
1/2 onion – finely chopped
3 cloves garlic – smashed and finely chopped
1 tablespoon ghee or butter
one tablespoon cumin
1 cup unsalted chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste
900g (2 pounds) cod or another meaty fish
3 tablespoons ghee
3 tablespoon vegetable oil
10 fresh or frozen curry leaves
5 cloves garlic very finely chopped
1 inch ginger – very finely chopped
3 spring onion finely chopped
2 to 5 fresh green chillies finely chopped
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
Juice of two limes
1 small bunch fresh coriander leaves – finely chopped
Sea salt to taste
Roasting peppers over a gas burner
method
Start first by making your sauce – if making.
Blacken the skins of the bell peppers over an open flame or place under the grill.
Once blackened, place the bell peppers in a plastic bag and tie shut for about five minutes.
Once you’ve done this, you should be able to remove the skins easily. It is not essential that every bit of skin is removed.
Slice the peppers into four parts and remove any seeds.
Roughly cut the peppers, onion and garlic.
Heat a small frying pan over medium low heat and melt the butter in it before adding the peppers, onion and garlic.
Allow to fry very slowly for about fifteen minutes. The onion should turn translucent. Do not burn.
Now add the cumin powder and chicken stock and simmer until the stock has reduces by one third.
Place all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until very smooth. Return to the pan and keep warm.
for the fish cakes
Take about 200g of the fish and place it in a food processor. Blend until the fish turns to a smooth paste.
Cut the rest of the fish into 1/4 inch cubes.
Put all of the fish in a bowl and mix with the garlic, gingers, spring onions, chillies and coriander leaves. Let rest while you make your cumin and fennel powder.
Place the fennel seeds, cumin seeds and black peppercorns in a dry frying pan and heat over medium heat. Move the spices around in the pan so that they roast evenly.
When the spices begin to smoke, remove them from the pan and pulverize into a find powder with a spice grinder.
Add this spice mixture along with the lime juice and coriander leaves and form into small round or oblong fish cakes.
Heat a large frying pan and add the oil and ghee to it.
When the ghee and oil is nice and hot, add the curry leaves and let sizzle for about 15 seconds before adding the fish cakes. Fry for about five minutes over medium high heat turning regularly until cooked through.
Serve together with the warmed sauce and/or a couple of lime wedges.
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So there you have it. Be sure to let me know what you think by leaving a message. As always, I can be contacted through this site if you have any questions about these fish cakes or any of my other recipes.
I am looking forward to trying these fish cakes – never thought of using a paste as the binder. Many thanks for posting such great recipes! We love to try different/unusual curry dishes. Made a curry-sauerkraut which has a wonderful flavor. Also, working on curry-inspired toad-in-the-hole.
I find pinterest.com great for organizing and sharing recipes. Perhaps worth considering as appears to be a great mechanism to increase visibility and site traffic.
Hi Simon
Thanks for that. Your curry sauerkraut sounds really interesting. I’d like the recipe for that. Thanks also for recommending Pineterest. I will check it out today.
Dan
Hi Dan – I will write up a recipe for the curry kraut and email to you over the weekend. We tend to experiment with lots of different spice blends and ingredients depending on what we have on hand – we also made Thai green curry and aleppo pepper versions that were both very tasty.
Let me know if you would like a pinterest invitation as the ‘request invitation’ on the site could take months to receive!
Cheers,
Simon
Hi Simon
Thank you for that. I look forward to reading and trying your recipe. I would love an invitation to Pinterest if you don’t mind. 🙂
Thanks,
Dan
Good morning, Dan,
I sent an invitation to the email address attached to your FB profile. Let me know if there is any problem and I can resend.
Cheers,
Simon
Curry is my number 1 food by far and these recipes look the bomb.
My mouth is watering! Mmmmmmmmmmm
Hi Mark
That’s great to hear. I’ll keep the recipes coming.
Dan
These sound good will give them a try this weekend.
Agree with the Pinterest idea.
Thanks Gillian
I hope you get a chance to try them. These fishcakes are one of my favourites. 🙂
Hi Dan
Can’t believe I’ve never come across this site before, I love, love, love fish cooked Indian style. This looks like a great recipe!
-Monica
Good luck to you. I love my Global knives. 🙂
Hi Dan,
We are thrilled that you love Goan food! If you do happen to visit Goa (there are direct flights from London), please stay at the MANDOVI HOTEL in Panjim. Their suites are very good and reasonable & can accomodate a small family, but even more exceptional is their authentic Goan/Portuguese food. The master chef there is very accomodating and you will feel at home.
Anyway, I thought I would share my recipe for Fish Cutlets – that’s what we call them in Goa.
2 cups of boiled fish flakes or canned tuna – without the water, 1 or 2 slices of bread, 1 egg, 2 onions finely chopped, 1 tablespoon minced garlic, 1 tablespoon minced ginger, 1 tablespoon finely chopped corriander leaves, 2 green chillies – deseeded and finely chopped, 1 teaspoon vinegar or the juice of 1 lime, salt to taste.
Process all the ingredients with your hand (this takes a while to get it nice and pastey) and form into croquettes (long oval patties). Coat the croquettes with breadcrumbs or a mixture of flour & semolina and shallow fry on all sides till light brown.
NB: To make them spicier, add a teaspoon of Rechiado Masala to the fish mixture. Rechiado is the well-known red, spicy “sauce” Goa is famous for! Enjoy!
Ron
Hi Ron
Thank you very much for the recipe. I’ll be giving that a try! Thanks also for the tip. I would love to visit Goa and hope to do so soon. I’ll look up the Mandovi hotel!
Dan
Hmm these look delicious, thanks for posting up this recipe, looks quite simple to make.
Simon