Southern Vietnamese Fish Cakes

This recipe is from the beautiful cookbook "Secrets of the Red Lantern" which contains recipes from Luke Nguyen and Mark Jensen. This book tells the story of the Nguyen family and is a wonderful combination of recipes, pictures and life stories. A similar version of this recipe can be found at http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipe/8372/Fried_fish_cakes_(cha_ca_quy_nhon)/search/true This version does not use a food processor and has no dill.
These fish cakes looked so simple that I was worried that they would lack flavour, however they were delicious. The recipe suggested using Spanish mackerel, taylor or red fish but I just used flake and was very happy with the end result. The fish was blended in a food processor with spring onions, salt, white pepper and garlic. You then put the mixture into a mortar and pounded it with a pestle, regularly dipping the pestle into fish sauce as you went. The end result was a smooth paste that didn't stick to the pestle.
Finally you folded through some chopped dill. The fish cakes were deep fried in vegetable oil until golden and served with dipping fish sauce made from fish sauce, rice vinegar, sugar (sweet, sour and salty), chopped garlic and red birds eye chilli and lime juice. I had the left over sauce on a tuna salad today and it was delicious. It would also be nice served with rice. Every dipping sauce is different depending on the balance of flavours and this is a very personal thing. The balance seemed pretty perfect to me with this one.
Vietnamese cuisine is very fresh and healthy and uses lots of fresh herbs and fish sauce. I am looking forward to trying more recipes from this book.
Rating 8-9 out 10