First make the cucumber relish, combine the vinegar, sugar, salt and water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Check the seasoning: it should taste sweet, sour with just a hint of salt. Mix together the remaining ingredients and place in a serving bowl, pour over the cooled vinegar mixture and set aside.

To make the fishcakes, blend the fish in a blender until a coarse paste. If your palm sugar is hard, dissolve it into the fish sauce first, then add this mix to the blender, followed by the curry paste and egg and blend again until a fairly smooth mix is achieved. Empty into a large mixing bowl and mix the remaining ingredients in by hand. The fishcakes should also have a nice bouncy texture here, if the blender hasn’t worked the mix sufficiently to achieve this, you can pick up the mixture and slap it back into the bowl a few times until the desired consistency results.

To serve, heat oil or a deep fryer to 165 - 170 degrees. Mix half of the fresh basil leaves through the fish cake mix. Form the mix into 10 - 12 flattened patties. Deep fry these patties in batches of 3 or 4 until just cooked through, about 2 - 3 minutes.

Drain on absorbent paper.

Now briefly deep fry the remaining basil leaves until crispy (about 15 seconds). Serve the fish cakes, garnished with crispy basil leaves and with the ajut relish alongside.