Thai fish cakes with fresh cucumber pickle

I'm continuing in my quest to get MacMan to eat (and enjoy eating) more fish. This recipe was another from the Taste magazine budget feature. It was really easy to prepare, and very tasty too. Even MacMan cleaned his plate - result! I served the cakes and pickle with some plain rice.

Thai fish cakes with fresh cucumber pickle
Serves 4

Pickle
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cucumber
3 spring onions, sliced
1/2 tsp crushed chilli

Fish cakes
450g white fish fillets, skin and bone removed (I used red cod)
1 tbsp (or to taste) Thai red paste
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp fish sauce
60g round beans, sliced (I used peas instead)
4 kaffir lime leaves, sliced (optional)
500ml peanut, canola or soya oil
2 tbsp roasted peanuts
lemon wedges to serve

• Place vinegar and sugar into a small pan over a low heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and cook for 5 minutes at boiling point. Pour into a small mixing bowl and leave to cool.
• Remove the ends from the cucumber. The recipe says to peel, and then to slice into long thin strips. However, I like cucumber peel, so to remove it seems to me to be removing the best bit. Therefore I chopped it into small cubes, peel still on. Place in the bowl with the vinegar mix. Toss in the sliced spring onion and chilli (which I ommitted as I thought the dish would be spicey enough with the fishcakes). Cover, and set aside.
• Pop the fish in food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the Thai red paste, salt, fish sauce, beans and lime leaves. Blend until mixture holds together.
• Tip out mixture onto a board, and knead together. Shape into about 20 balls and flatten each one into a cake.
• Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Cook the cakes each side until golden brown.
• Serve with chopped peanuts and lemon wedges, with the pickle on the side.