Pan-fried dace fish cakes

Ingredientsserves 4

Method

1. Soak the dried peel until soft, scrape away the white pith and shred it as fine as you can; soak and chop the dried shrimp. If you bought whole fish flesh rather than paste, chop it with the knife rather than a blender; Hong Kong cooks say the knife gives the better bite.
2. Put the fish paste in a bowl with salt, sugar, pepper, sesame oil, cornflour and two tablespoons of water and stir in one direction until it tightens.
3. Lift the paste and slap it back into the bowl over and over until it turns glossy and springy; the more you slap, the bouncier the cake.
4. Fold in the peel, dried shrimp, spring onion and coriander stems.
5. Oil your palms, take a golf ball of paste and pat it into a cake about 1.5 cm thick.
6. Heat the oil in a flat pan over high heat, lay the cakes in and fry about thirty seconds, flip, then press gently flat so they cook through; turn to medium and give each side another minute or two until golden.
7. Drain and serve hot with Worcestershire sauce on the side.

Take care

• Contains fish and shrimp (dried shrimp); Worcestershire sauce contains fish and soy. Fry the cakes until the centre is cooked through.

The story

Dace fish cakes came from Shunde, whose cooks took the bony mud carp off the bone, chopped it to a paste and slapped it until it turned springy, a boneless cake made by craft out of an awkward fish. In Hong Kong the wet-market fish stall beats the paste for you and it is fried at home; dipping it in Worcestershire sauce is a Hong Kong habit found nowhere else.

Same technique

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Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.