Recipe: Perkedel (Indonesian potato fish cake)

No matter how hard I try, I can never get my perkedels to taste (or look) remotely like the ones made by The Makan Shop (Race Course Road, Singapore) - my favourite. "Makan" means "eat" in the Malay language. But these are pretty good still. One of my comfort foods.

RECIPE: PERKEDEL

6 potatoes, peeled and cubed
8 shallots, chopped finely
300g cod, skin removed
1 tbsp curry powder
2 eggs
flour

1. Boil potatoes until soft (approx. 20 mins). Mash.
2. Fry shallots lightly in 1 tbsp of oil for approx. 2 mins.
3. Blitz cod in the food processor.
4. Combine all ingredients in a bowl.
5. Mix in curry powder.
6. Add 1 egg to bind ingredients together.
7. Beat remaning egg. Heat a cast iron pan with a bit of oil till very hot. You can add more oil as you go along. Shape the potato fish mixture into a ball - either with hands or two spoons, dip into egg and then flour, and fry on both sides till brown spots appear and crispy (approx. 10 mins).

Other ingredients commonly added: coriander, parsley, celery (finely chopped), garlic, parsley, cumin, nutmeg. It depends on your taste. I like curry powder and coriander.

Tomorrow night, I'm going to try to prepare the remainder mixture into more perkedel balls for freezing, like fish fingers. Will report.

UPDATE
I added a huge bunch of freshly chopped coriander (leafy bit) and few pinches of salt, which dramatically improved the simple taste. Have put rest in freezer. Will report.