Thai is definitely the quickest and easiest way to go!
'Almost a week ago' was the infamous Valentines Day - where new couples cringe and formulate an original, most amazing, sweep-her-off-her-feet-and-be-the-most-romantic-person-ever! occasion. For others it means bypassing the restaurants filled with other couples and cooking your own Restaurant-approved meal, which is what we did.
Coupled with juicy lime wedges and sweet chilli sauce mixed with grated ginger, this appetizer will definitely make you ready for mains. Somehow the limes we bought provided more than a tablespoon of juice! That's amazing if you know our track record with squeezing our own limes for mojitos...
The bulk of the work came in blending the chicken breasts and the herbs. The amount of "blitzing" you do is purely on taste - the chunkier you like the cakes to be, the less time the ingredients spend in the blender.
I'd suggest making this dish with at least one other person in the kitchen as I found it easier to mix all the ingredients with my hands and then forming the cakes; unless you don't mind ingredient-clad-utensils, cooking the little cakes may be somewhat of a mess!
Surprisingly, searching for a Thai chicken dish yielded (too) many recipes for Thai curries - those can wait for winter.
The recipe called for lettuce yet ours only had rocket, basil, salad burnett and parsley (our new lettuce seedlings had only been planted three weeks before).
I was taken aback by how simple everything seemed - yet understandably, the fillet was the only thing that needed to be cooked (ours was marinated in balsamic and olive oil an hour before cooking). The flavour came from the dressing that combines the sweet, sour, tangy, salt and heat from the sugar, lime juice, ginger, fish sauce and chilli. We had roasted the raw peanuts beforehand that were scattered over the almost-finished salad, which we sneakingly snacked on whilst preparing - they were amazing!
Although I am not too sure about using beef for the Thai cakes, one can definitely use chicken pieces for the salad above.
Please have a little squiz at the two links below. They will make you happy too!
Taste-Bud Tantalising Thai Chicken Cakes
The Most Amazing Thai Beef Salad