Tod Mun Pla (Fried Fishcakes)

Every Thai restaurant in the UK sells these and everywhere you go they are pretty much identical. I’ve come to the conclusion that *most* restaurants will buy them in ready made and while they are generally very tasty and have that quintessential rubberyness, can’t help but feel a freshly made tod mun pla would be so much better. On that note, I admit I have cheated and used my favourite Thai red curry paste brand, Mae Ploy but by all means make your own red curry paste from scratch.


For around 20 fishcakes use:

• 3 fillets of white fish (I used pouting; coley and pollock are good too) skinned and cut into chunks


• around 8 green beans, sliced very fine


• a heaped tablespoon of red curry paste (Mae Ploy being my choice but all supermarkets sell red curry paste now)


• a good splash of fish sauce (nam pla) easy to get in supermarkets


• 5 or 6 kaffir lime leaves ( forget dried ones, bigger Sainsburys sell fresh. Frozen are fine too. Roll them up into a cigar and shred very fine. 


• a big pinch of sugar


• 1 egg


• vegetable oil for frying

For the cucumber pickle you’ll need:

• a thumb sized chunk of cucumber, cut into a fine dice


• a big splash of white wine vinegar


• 2 Thai shallots or the whites of 2 spring onions, finely diced


• 2 or 3 birds eye chillies, finely chopped


• a small pinch of sugar

Start off by making the pickle, mix all the ingredients listed above in a small bowl and leave to ‘pickle’ while you make the fishcakes.


Put all the ingredients other than the fish into a bowl. For the fish, place a few chunks at a time into a pestle and mortar and then bash away for several minutes until the fish becomes a paste. Keep going until all the fish has become a paste and add to the bowl with all the other ingredients. Mix everything together well. Fill the bottom of a frying pan with the oil and heat. When it’s hot, scoop out a spoonful (aim for a golf ball sized amount) of the fishcake mixture, flatten into a small cake and gently place in the oil. Don’t overcrowd the pan, do as many batches as need be. After a few minutes, check on the fishcake colour, if it’s looking a deep golden brown, turn it over, if not give it a little more time. They should take around 4-5 minutes total. Flip them a few times if need be.

Drain onto kitchen paper before serving with the pickled cucumber.