Appetizers
Cucumber pickles
Tod Man Pla or Thai Fish Cakes
Tod Man Pla or Thai Fish Cakes with red curry favour is a
popular and well known dish. You can find this dish at street vendors to fancy
restaurants in Bangkok .
Original or in Thailand
this dish is made from Clown featherback or
Clown knifefish which is Southeast Asian fresh water fish. The textures of fish
cakes from this kind of fish are tough, firm and resiling
so this kind of fish is ideal for making fish cakes and fish balls. Fish balls
in Thailand
Some Thai people
use mackerel fish the kind that we have in Thai sea for making fish cake as
well but it’s not that popular, because people have fixed the idea to the
original one. Here we can find fresh king mackerel easily at a market so I use
king mackerel for my fish cake recipe. The results from these two kinds of fish
- Clown featherback and king mackerel, are very similar.
For the curry
paste, we use red curry paste for the favour but it is not as spicy as the red
curry. We use the same curry paste as Chu Chee curry, you can see the recipe on
page Chu Chee curry- here.
In Thailand
*** I found the information of king mackerel substitutes: Spanish
mackerel OR shad OR bluefish OR herring OR small trout, the fish that has similar texture.
For 13 - 14 pieces of fish cakes / size 2 ¼ inches x 1⁄3 inch
Ingredients
300 g Fillets of king mackerel
4 tbsp Curry Paste (see
recipe from Chu Chee curry)
1 Egg
1⁄3
cup Snake Beans, cut into ¼ inch
6 – 7 leaves Kaffir Lime
Leaves, cut into very thin stripes
½ tsp Potato or tapioca
starch
 |
| Snake bean and Kaffir lime leaves |
4 – 5 tbsp Cold water (or
about 1⁄3 cup)
2 tbsp Fish sauce
Oil for frying
Instruction
- Remove fish’s skin and bones by scratching it
with a spoon. Ground the fish in mortar with pestle or food processor
until paste like.
- Remove fish paste to a mixing bowl, and add egg,
fish sauce and potato starch. Start kneading, in the same time add cold
water gradually 3 - 4 times, and knead and grab the fish dough throw it
back to the bowl, basically beating the fish repeatedly until the mixer
tough and bouncing. (This process originally, the bowl with the fish mixer
will be sitting on the ice. Beating the cold fish mixer will create a nice
bouncing texture – bouncing fish cakes. The same process is for making
fish balls as well)
The process of making fish cakes - Add snake beans and kaffir lime leaves, and mix
well
- Heat a frying pan or wok on medium heat, and add
oil. Mould the mixer into 2 ¼ inches x 1⁄3 inch
or shape like cookies. And fry both sides until nice brown colour or
cooked. Remove and drain oil on paper towels.
- Serve with cucumber pickles (see recipe below)
1 Cucumber
2 tbsp Coriander, chopped
1⁄3 cup Peanuts, ground (optional)
1 Fresh Thai chilli, chopped
(optional)
½ cup White vinegar
½ cup Sugar
1 tsp salt
Instruction
- Mix vinegar, sugar and salt in a pot on medium heat. Boil until bubbling for 1- 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set a side until it is cool.
- Cut cucumber into quarter in lengthwise and slice into ¼ thick. Pour into vinegar mixer in a serving bowl. Add chilli and peanuts, and mix well.
- Garnish with coriander.
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