An Authentic Thai Fish Cake Recipe

Fish cakes are a staple in Thailand – often sold on the street and in fine-dining restaurants, and can be served as an appetiser or as a quick snack. If you’ve ever visited Thailand and fallen in love with this simple food, you’ll be delighted to learn you can now make a Thai fish cake recipe at home to serve to family and friends.

What Are Thai Fish Cakes?

Thai fish cakes are called “Tod Mun Pla” in Thai and have a texture that is spongy. This makes it closer to Asian fish balls than fritters or sausage patties in meat density. The delicious flavour that makes up the flavour profile is derived from the liberal use of Flying Goose Brand Thai Sriracha red curry paste.

Best Fish to Use for Fish Cakes

Practice makes perfect, and you will eventually master the art of creating perfect Thai fish cakes. To get the right texture, you should choose fairly soft-fleshed fish. Recommended fish include:

• Ling Cod
• Tilapia
• Snapper
• Barramundi
• Silver Dory
• John Dory
• Basa
• Hokki
• Perch
• Flathead
• Monkfish

Leaner fish, like swordfish and tuna, may be too firm for fish cakes. Small, oily fish like sardines and mackerel are also unsuitable. However, fish consistency needs to hold while cooking, so overly-tender fish, like flounder and Dover sole, should also be avoided.

Ingredients

The ingredients for Thai fish cakes are pretty straightforward, but if you have to substitute any of them – your fish cakes may have a slightly different taste than how you remember.

The ingredients are:

• 350 grams of tender fish meat dried thoroughly if thawed from frozen and cut into small enough pieces to fit into a food processor.
• 2-3 tablespoons of Flying Goose Brand red curry paste
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ½ cup long beans
• 1/3 cup Thai basil or holy basil, sliced into ribbons
• 5 kaffir lime leaves, finely julienned
• Fish sauce as needed

How to Prepare Thai Fish Cakes

To make the fish cakes, combine the fish, red curry paste, egg yolk and sugar in a food processor. Grind the ingredients until smooth, scraping the processor’s sides. After getting a uniform mixture, keep going for a bit until it holds its shape.

If this is your first time making fish cakes, sample a bit of the mix after cooking it to check the seasoning. Add more curry paste for spice and fish sauce for saltiness if it’s bland.

After the fish mix is seasoned and textured just right, put it in a bowl with the chopped beans, kaffir lime leaves, and Thai basil. Keep stirring until everything is mixed.

Set up your cooking space with a bowl of cold water and paper towels next to the stove. Heat up a wok or skillet, then add oil to cover the surface. Dip your hands and a tablespoon into the water. Shape the mixture into patties, fry on both sides until golden brown for approximately 2 minutes per side.

Serving Your Homemade Thai Fish Cakes

Finally! No more deciding what to serve with fish cakes – pour some Flying Goose Brand Thai sweet chilli dipping sauce into a bowl, slice up some cucumbers, add some peanuts and shallots into the dipping sauce and you’re all set.

Experiment with Different Sriracha Sauces

Sriracha sauce can also be used as a dipping sauce with your fish cake recipe. Flying Goose Brand is a premier Sriracha exporter. We offer over 30 flavours of our authentic Thai Sriracha sauces as well as red and green curry pastes and a wide variety of other Thai sauces and products. Purchase our Sriracha sauces to make authentic Thai fish cakes for your guests and elevate your culinary skills with products from Flying Goose Brand.

References: 

1. Thai Fish Cakes – Retrieved August 19, 2025, from: https://www.recipetineats.com/thai-fish-cakes-2/
2. Thai Fish Cakes (Tod Mun Pla) – Retrieved August 19, 2025, from: https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/fish-cakes/