Thailand – Tod Man Pla

by Fauzan Anandika

Thailand is the most popular country to visit in Southeast Asia, with more than 3,8 million tourists visited in 2018. They have so many tourist destinations like a beautiful beach, temple, and historical place. Their culture, tradition and culinary also become an attraction and well promoted.

Some of us know Thailand from their culinary, as we can found Thai restaurants in many places in the world. They successfully spread their culture through culinary business. Thai food has a spicy and flavorful taste combine with a sweet, salty, and sour taste. Thai culinary categorize into four regions, North, North East, Center, and South. All of these regions were influence by the Chinese and neighboring countries. In the South, they use dried spice, coconut milk, and turmeric, similar to Indian food. The North-East people use lemon juice in their dish adapted from Lao country. 

Tom Yam, Pad Thai can be found anywhere in the world. But when we talk about street food, Tod man pla will appear in the first place. Tod man pla use fish or chicken for its ingredients. Usually, Thai people prefer to use fish to make Tod man pla. They use white meat fish like tuna, snapper, and maceral. In Thailand, Tod man pla serves with a side of spicy red curry and cucumber pickles. 

Making Tod man pla relatively easy is similar to making mashed potatoes the difference is it fried. All the spice was also easy to find in the grocery store. So what are you waiting for? Grab your cooking ware and make some Tod man pla.

Ingredient

• 400-gram snapper fillet
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoon instant coconut milk
• 2 tablespoon cornstarch
• Vegetable oil
• 4 tablespoon red curry paste
• 100-gram bean, thin sliced
• 6 lime leaf, thin sliced

Blended spice

• 12 clove garlic
• 8 shallot
• 5 coriander root, sliced
• 4 dried chili
• 3 lemongrasses, use only the white part, thin sliced
• 2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon lime peel
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• ½ teaspoon shrimp paste
• ½ teaspoon salt

Pickles ingredient

• 2 cucumbers, thin sliced
• 100 ml vinegar
• 120-gram sugar
• 5 red cayenne pepper, sliced

How to cook

1. Blend egg, fish, coconut milk, cornstarch, and two tablespoons vegetable oil using a food processor. Blend until smooth.
2. Mix the dough with red curry paste and blended spice.
3. Add lime and beans, finely mix.
4. Pick ½ tablespoon dough, flatten. Do the same for the rest of the dough.
5. Fry with medium heat until changed to brown color.
6. Remove to a serving plate.
7. Serve with a side of pickles.