How to make Thai fried fish cakes, or tod mun pla, with a ‘bouncy’ texture mastered by Bangkok street vendors

Tod mun pla, or fried fishcakes, is a popular dish from Thailand. The best I’ve eaten were in Bangkok, where a street food vendor was frying them as fast as she could for a line of eager customers. Thai fishcakes are different from the tender, lightly seasoned fishcakes you get outside Asia.

In many Asian cuisines a “bouncy” tex­ture is prized – meatballs, seafood balls and fishcakes have a resilience that is almost, but not quite, chewy. This texture is achieved by vigorous mixing of the fish (or meat or seafood) paste, either beating it in a machine, or by repeatedly picking up handfuls of the paste and throwing it back into the bowl.

Thai fried fishcakes (tod mun pla)

The base of these fishcakes is fresh (uncooked) ground fish paste, which you can find at Asian seafood markets. Seafood vendors take inexpensive fish, fish scraps and whatever fresh fish is left from the day before and chop and pulverise it to make the paste. You can make it yourself, but it is much more economical (and easier) to buy it.

Tass, the excellent home cook I learned this recipe from, recommends mixing two types of fish paste – one seasoned (primarily with salt) and the other plain. She says the seasoned paste on its own is too salty for this recipe (it is often used to make fish balls, or as a stuffing for fried vegetables or bean curd), while the plain one is too bland.

If the market only has plain fish paste, mix in salt to taste, after adding the other seasonings. If you can buy only seasoned fish paste, grind or finely mince raw fish fillets and mix them in to tone down the saltiness.

Makrut lime leaves (also called kaffir lime leaves) come in pairs; you will need four to six pairs for this dish, depending on size.

Tass recommends using the Namjai brand of Thai red curry paste.