Recipes for lockdown: Thai fish cakes

If you have some leftover red curry paste from my last lockdown recipe, then this is a great way to use it up.

Thai fishcakes are one of my favourite Thai snacks. I often make them as a canapé or starter for an Asian themed meal, because they are incredibly easy, but deceptively so – people are always very impressed that I have made them from scratch. I prepare the mix ahead of time and shallow fry them till golden on the outside, but not cooked through, then finish them in the oven when I am ready to serve. Less faff and means I can actually talk to my guests.

The fish cake recipe is based on David Thompson’s, but with a few of the more exotic, hard to find ingredients replaced with things you can easily get in your local supermarket. If you can’t get fresh kaffir lime leaves, don’t substitute for dried, just skip them or use zest of lime instead. Likewise, the original recipe calls for snake beans, but I have never seen them in a shop in London, Asian or otherwise, so I just use fine green beans. 

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Recipes for lockdown: Thai red duck curry

I know, I know – duck curry is an extravagant dish to be posting in the middle of a global crisis, but in this set of recipes I'm aiming to use things that you can easily procure at the supermarket. As I said in my last blog post, I have had difficulty getting the basics, but more expensive, luxury items are fully stocked.

Coconut milk, like most tinned goods, have often run out at the big supermarkets, but try your local ethnic corner store. We have a Pakistani one near us, which is fully stocked with all sorts of spices, curry pastes and plenty of coconut milk.

I'm also trying to use up odds and ends that you might have in your cupboards. This is my excuse for using store bought red curry paste – I’ve had half a jar of it in the back of the pantry for some time. Since it is old, it has probably lost a bit of flavour, so I added some fresh garlic, ginger and lemongrass to my curry to revitalise it. I’ve marked these as optional in the recipe, since you don’t need them if you have fresh curry paste.

If you want to make your own red curry paste, then I highly recommend David Thompson’s recipe, though some of the ingredients will only be available in a Thai supermarket. If that is difficult, then this recipe by Nagi on Recipe Tin Eats is a great alternative. It is based on Thompson’s recipe, but with a slightly simplified ingredients list, most of which you should be able to get easily. The only thing I haven't often seen in the shops here is galangal, but you can substitute fresh ginger.

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Recipes for lockdown: Smoked salmon quesadillas

I did have 3 Sydney restaurant posts lined up to share with you, but given that the whole world is in lockdown, it doesn’t seem relevant nor appropriate to reminisce about the delicious things I ate on my recent holiday in Australia.

I am back in London and confined to my home, except for essential shopping and one outing per day to exercise. I have taken to cycling for my daily dose of fresh air and, as I have paniers, I’ve been collecting my shopping on route. No panic buying, mind, just what I need for the next few days.

Since the rest of the nation seem determined to clear all staples from supermarket shelves, I have had to get a bit creative in the kitchen. I have noted an interesting trend though, which is that exotic fruits, vegetables, meats and fish are still in abundance.

"I feel like the we are eating better in this global pandemic than we normally do" said the M&2V, as we munched on fillet steak with chimmichurri and hasselback potatoes on Sunday night. "Living it up in the crisis."

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Royal Treasure Seafood Restaurant, Sydney

It is a testament to the quality of food at Royal Treasure Seafood Restaurant that I went back. My first yum cha experience there was chaos of the Faulty Towers variety.

My friend Dash recommended it highly: loads of dumplings packed with fresh seafood and greens, sweet and sticky pork buns, great salt and pepper squid and plenty of other hot, crispy delights. Sold.

As we were walking up to the restaurant Dash warned me:

“There is always a queue, but don’t worry, it always moves quickly. 10 mins max.”

Famous last words.

We pushed through the 20 plus people crowding the little desk where the maître de assigns tickets for the waiting list. They had all been assigned their numbers but were still looking very stressed, waving their tickets and barking in Chinese at the poor young girl. I did not envy her job.

We got to the front of the queue and were told it would be a 30 minute wait. We decided to sit it out. We’d driven 45 minutes to eat there so we might as well, right? Wrong.

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Merry Christmas and New Year's Resolutions

Wow! It has been a busy year - I can't believe it is almost 2020 and I did a total of three blogposts this year. Well luckily, like everyone, I am going to be a new and better person come the new year. Hopefully my new year's resolutions this year will make it longer than I can count in days on one hand...

Have a Merry Christmas all and cheers to a prolific 2020! ;-)