A Few Notes

• Feel free to approximate the rice and fish as long as you end up with around 3 1/2 cups of substance. You can mix and match a bit if your leftovers aren’t exact.
• I used Hinode’s Medium Grain Rice. (They didn’t pay me to say that. I work with them, but I happen to also like their rice. That’s why it’s a good relationship.) The medium grain is a bit stickier than your average long grain. If you have long grain, add a bit of extra mayonnaise a tablespoon at a time to help it stick together if you have problems forming your cakes.
• You can make these with a variety of leftover fish. They are equally delicious with salmon or whitefish, tuna, snapper, or tilapia. I used a snapper that had been prepared with lemon and grilled in a parchment bag. If you have a salty piece of fish, you may want to decrease the salt level a bit.

This is our neighbor Sara‘s margarita recipe. (Sara is pictured above.) We approve. In fact, I made them again 4 days later to make sure I had the right ratios for this post. Painful process that was. Painful.

If your patty pan is small and cute, you won’t need to cut them up. Mine were a bit larger because I had originally thought about stuffing them with red lentils before I got sidetracked by the red curry craving.

Heat a bit of chili oil in a wok. Chili oil can be found in grocery stores or in Asian markets. If you can find it, though, fear not. Just use a light-style oil if you can’t find it. Then add in your vegetables and sauté to start the cooking process. We’ll be cooking them more, though, so five minutes is plenty to get them going.

Once your vegetables have started it’s time for the curry. Add in your curry paste along with a bit of lemongrass and fresh ginger.

My sister Rachel was there, and after kindly watching my kids for me all afternoon, she was sticking around to benefit from the curry. Skeptical of my method, she usually cooks the curry paste and the other seasonings along with the coconut milk before mixing the vegetables. I didn’t have an issue with adding them and letting them sear together in the pan before adding the liquid ingredients, and because the eggplant and patty pan needed the extra time anyway, there was no issue with vegetable texture. Coconut milk and a bit of lime juice come in.

Raw shrimp purchased already deveined and subsequently peeled by me get added to the mix to simmer.

And simmer.

Served over basmati rice, this is a dish worth talking about. It’s spicy and fresh, and I personally enjoyed how light the shrimp was in contrast to a chicken curry. If you prefer, you could definitely substitute the vegetables used here with zucchini and other summer squash and eggplant varieties. The keys here are in the sauce, and this one satisfied my Thai-food craving for at least a little while longer.

Note: The three younger kids found this too spicy, maybe because I added three Thai peppers and all of their seeds. It’s possible that could be why. Lene ate all her shrimp and the rice. Kjell ate the rice and maybe put one bite in his mouth before accusing me of trying to kill him by starting his stomach on fire. Magnus, well, let’s just say that dinner isn’t his preferred time to eat these days. It’s breakfast when he breaks that fast. That said, it’s been made again, this time without the Thai peppers on the kids’ side, and this went over much better.

The adult diners that night had no complaint, and I actually could have used a bit more heat than three Thai peppers allowed. To each their own. Experiment. Know what you like and what you can tolerate, and…maybe show some restraint when you plan on stuffing it in front of the faces of a 2-, 4- and 6-year-old. Perhaps.