Fish Rice Cakes

Apparently, we all socialize. Especially, after moving away from home, socializing becomes part of life. We meet people, hang out with friends, attend parties, mingle with people from different culture, which gives so much exposure about many things. Food is definitely one of them. I recently read this saying somewhere: Food is not about impressing people, Its about making them feel comfortable. How true! To me, the flavor and taste is what makes me comfortable. Obviously the presentation is what draws our attention towards it, but ultimately taste is what makes it a winner. Ofcourse there are people who are experts in both presentation and cooking as well. In fact, I do know someone like that in my close knit friends circle. I just admire her passion for cooking and also her presentation skills. You give her even a burnt Roti, she will give it an artistic look on the table. I wish I had those skills. Its still a dream for me and I'm hoping one day I'll become better in both! A big hope!

As part of our weekend socializing, I had a couple come in for a tea party today, and I had planned to offer them a few appetizers. Fish rice cake has been in my to-try list for a while. This is yet another recipe that I got from my sister! But this time its from my other sister who lives in India. I've been lately hearing a lot about her awesome fish recipes those she's been mastering for a while. Mom was praising about her fish cutlets and fish fingers that she had made when she recently visited my sister's place. Since then I was tempted to give it a shot and was all set after discussing the recipe with my sis over phone. Recipe sounded too enticing and I couldn't wait to try.

So, when I had invited a couple for a tea party, this fish cakes sounded like a perfect match for an evening tea. Not too heavy, yet not too light either. I had already tried this recipe last week in smaller quantities as I just wanted to get the hang of it and I didn't want to mess up in front of the guests. To be honest, Cutlets are very tricky for me. I have messed them up sometimes, well.. many times :) Somehow, they disintegrate or collapse when I fry them and I was almost about to give up making them. Then after reading a few cookbooks, I learnt that the binding ingredient has to be exactly in the right proportion, and that's the tricky part. Sometimes a complex thing sounds so simple after its explained! This recipe uses rice as the binding agent and I was very cautious in its proportion, and it came out perfectly fine during my trial version as well as during the actual party. Yummy and thanks dear sis for this great recipe, my friends just loved it!

This entry also goes for Eat healthy - Protein Rich hosted by Sangeeth.

Ingredients

• Tuna/Sardines in Oil - 2 cans (you get it in all grocery stores, the cans are flat and rectangled). Or you can also just steam cook a tuna steak (or any fish) and mince them finely. Make sure it comes to about a cup after mincing.
• Onions - minced - 1/2 cup
• Ginger - 1.5 inches
• Garlic - 2 medium cloves
• G.Chilly- 1
• Fresh dill leaves - minced - 1 tbsp
• Chilli powder, corriander powder, cumin powder - 1 tsp each
• Turmeric and Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp each
• Lemon juice - 1 tsp
• Cooked left over rice - 1 cup

Procedure

• If you have a food processor, toss in the onions, garlic, ginger and g.chilly and give it a run. This will perfectly mince the ingredients as required. Otherwise, you can chop all these ingredients very finely.
• Mash the cooked rice so that they are out of shape. I actually ran this also in food processor separately.
• Heat oil in a pan, add the minced ingredients and fry until onions turn golden brown.
• Add dill leaves and fry for a min. You will get a nice aroma. Now add all the spice powders along with salt and fry in medium heat for 4-5 mins.
• Then add the fish, some oil from the can and fry it in medium heat for 3 mins.
• Transfer the contents to a wide bowl. Add the rice and lemon juice and mix it well to a dough consistency. Add and adjust salt.
• Make your desired shapes for cutlets and shallow fry on a pan with oil.

Serve hot with chutney or ketchup.