Thai Fish Cakes (Tod Mun Pla)
Thai fish cakes are awesome as an appetizer or as a full meal! This dish can be made at home with just a few easy steps, and mixes it up from your typical fish filet.
Tod mun pla, or Thai fish cakes, is a typical street food found in Thailand. Tod mun means “deep fry” and pla means “fish. It’s made with any type of mild white fish, like tilapia or cod, red curry paste, an egg, and green onions.
These fish cakes are essentially just “fish meatballs.” All you have to do is mix up the ingredients, form into patties, and cook in a frying pan. If you have a food processor, this recipe should take you about 10 minutes to prepare and 10 minutes to cook. It’s also good if you have any leftover red curry paste you need to use up from making Red curry!
How to make Thai fish cakes
Combine the fish, curry paste, egg, fish sauce, and sugar in a food processor. Continue to process until it is thoroughly blended and mixed into a paste.
Add the green onions to the food processor and pulse until they are just mixed in —make sure not to overprocess, you don’t want to blend the onions too much.
Form the paste into small balls about the size of a golf ball, then flatten them into small patties.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil so that the bottom of the pan is coated with oil. Place the fish patties on the pan, leaving some room in between them. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes per side until golden brown.
Serve with sriracha, sweet chili sauce, cucumber relish, or soy sauce!
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Thai Fish Cakes
Ingredients
- 4 tilapia fillets patted dry if frozen
- 1 egg beaten
- 2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste*
- ½ cup of green onions
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
Instructions
- Combine the fish, curry paste, egg, sugar, and fish sauce in a food processor. Continue to process until it is thoroughly mixed into a paste. Then add in the green onions and pulse until they are just mixed in, make sure not to over-process.
- Form the paste into small balls about the size of a golf ball, then flatten them into small patties. Do this until all paste is formed into patties.
- Heat a medium to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil so that the bottom of the pan is coated with oil. Place the fish patties on the pan, but leave some room in between so that the pan isn’t overcrowded. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes per side until golden brown.
- Serve with sauce of your choice!
Notes
Liked this recipe? Try out Korean enoki mushroom pancakes,Vietnamese turmeric fried fish, or explore more Thai recipes!
If you tried this recipe let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
These fish cakes were delicious! They had great flavor and the recipe was super easy to follow. I loved the different flavors present throughout.
They’re perfect for an appetizer but if you make them for dinner they’re definitely on the lighter end so keep that in mind.
Would love to see a sauce you recommend to pair them with
Thank you! I have added a link to Nuoc Cham, a Vietnamese dipping sauce which goes well with the fish cakes. I will add some more sauces that pair well with this in the future! Thanks for your feedback 🙂
These fish cakes were delicious! The recipe was very easy to follow and the timing was exact. I put in only 1 tablespoon of red curry paste because I do not handle spice well, and that was perfect. I made them with a side of coleslaw for dinner, and we had leftovers.
Thanks Meg! Glad you enjoyed the fish cakes and were able to adjust to your spice needs!
-Annie