Vietnamese prawn cakes

These are fabulous. There is something very satifying about fried food; here, the way the crisp outside gives way to succulent prawn is divine, especially with spiky Thai flavours. A superb new year's slap around the mouth. The dipping sauce and cucumber salad are indispensible.

Crossing continents, the best possible thing to drink with this is a well-made (eg. very sour and very strong and perilously drinkable) caipirinha: chopped up whole lime muddled with sugar syrup, cachaça - or white rum if you don't have cachaça - and a lot of crushed ice.

raw, peeled prawns

ginger - finely chopped

garlic - finely chopped

bird's eye or other hot chilli - finely chopped

spring onions - chopped

coriander stalks - finely chopped

lemongrass - finely chopped

salt and pepper

Pulse this mixture together in a food processor; if it's too liquid, add a little bit of flour or cornflour. Let it rest in the fridge while you make the dipping sauce:

tamarind paste (a little bit) - if not add more lime juice

rice wine vinegar

sugar

some of the finely chopped chilli and ginger and some spring onion tops (the green bit)

fish sauce (nam pla or nuoc mam depending on whether it's Thai or Vietnamese)

a splash of water

Mix this all together to taste; you want a balance of salty, sweet, hot and sour. Use a vegetable peeler to shave thin strips off a section of cucumber, add it to some shredded spring onion and dress with a bit more rice vinegar and salt. Set this aside too.

Fry spoonfuls of the prawn mixture in about a 1/2 cm of oil until crisp and golden brown on one side, then flip them over and do the other side. Don't overcrowd the pan - make four or so and keep them warm on kitchen paper in the oven whilst you do the rest.

Even better, though, is to eat them as you go, with a friend, in front of the hob - dunking the hot cakes in that spiky sauce with a bit of crunchy salty cucumber after a bit of fiddly chopping and preparing makes for an incredibly satisfying mouthful indeed. Seriously good.