Thai Spiced Potato Cakes with Spicy Coleslaw

Ingredients
Plain flour, for rolling
2 eggs, beaten, for egg wash
150g fresh bread crumbs
Oil for frying
Freshly chopped coriander leaves and lime or lemon slices to serve

For the spicy coleslaw

100g cabbage, finely sliced
½ red onion, finley sliced
2 grated carrots
50g mayo
1 tbsp wasabi paste
3 lime leaves, shredded
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put cabbage, onion and carrots into a large bowl and season well.
Add the mayo, wasabi and lime leaves and mix it up well

For this coleslaw I also added lightly toasted black sesame seeds. This is optional and you can also use white sesame seeds.


For the potato cakes

3 large potatoes, peeled, cooked and mashed
1 raw potato, peeled and grated
3 tbsp mayo
1 bunch of spring onions, finely chopped
2 small red chillies, deseeded and chopped
Freshly chopped coriander leaves
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 stalks of lemon grass, finely chopped
4 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped
(I didn’t have any lemon grass or kaffir lime leaves so instead squeezed some lemon and lime juice in and a bit of rind from each)
2.5cm/1inch piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
1 onion or 2 shallots finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

First, make the potato cakes. Put the mashed and grated spuds in a large bowl, add all the other potato cake ingredients and season with salt and pepper

Mould the mixture into patties in what ever size you want.
Recipe says to pop them in the fridge for an hour but I didn’t and they turned out fine

Set up three plates or bowls: one with flour, one with egg wash and one with bread crumbs.
First roll the cakes in flour, dust of any excess, then roll them in the egg and finally in the bread crumbs

Don’t be fooled. This sounds simple but is the most time consuming process in the world.
You can shallow or deep fry then. If you shallow fry as I did, be careful not to burn them, cooking them for longer and on a low heat is best. Either way they are done when crisp and golden. This also takes a fair bit of time

Make a bed of coleslaw on your plate and sit potato cakes on top.

Sprinkle some chopped coriander over and add a wedge of lime or lemon on the side.



From The Accidental Vegetarian by Simon Rimmer