A Menu for Hope, Tod Mun Pla and Cucumber Ajaad
Tod Mun Pla, Fried Fish Cake
1 pound white fish filet, any kind will do
3 eggs
1 tbsp flour
1/2 cup long beans, sliced into small thin pieces (if you don’t have Chinese long beans, French green beans of
haricots verts will do, but you need to blanche the haricots first)
a handful of lime leaves, chiffonade
4 tbsp fish sauce
4 tsbp panang curry paste
oil for frying
1. In a food processer, blend together the fish filet, eggs, flour, fish sauce and curry paste together until well blended. Remove the fish mixture into a large bowl. The curry paste flavor will vary, so you should check the seasoning of the fish paste by cooking a spoonful quickly in a microwave, add more seasoning if needed.
2. Cut Chinese long beans (or other green beans) on bias into thin slices, cut lime leaves into thin strips or chiffonade, mix the long beans and lime leaves strips into the fish mixture by hand, knead well for a few minutes
3. Heat the oil in a pan, making sure the pan is well heated before adding the oil. Drop a fingertip size fish paste into the oil, if it puffs and bubbles up right away, the oil is ready.
4. Pat about a 2 inch ball of fish mixture into a thin round, about 2 cm thickness, drop into the oil, repeat until the pan is full
5. Fry the fish cake on each side until well brown. Serve warm with the cucumber ajaad.
Cucumber Ajaad
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
½ tbsp fish sauce
1.5 cup thinly sliced cucumber
2 shallots, thinly sliced
ground peanuts, to taste
chilli, chopped, to taste
1 tbsp chopped cilantro (optional)
1. heat the rice vinegar and sugar together until dissolved, add fish sauce, let cool
2. when the vinegar syrup is cooled, add the cucumber, shallots, peanuts and chilli, toss and serve on the side with the fish cakes.
