Thai Fish Cakes (Tod Mun Pla) with Cucumber Sauce

Having three kids mean lots of parties. Lots and lots of parties. At almost every one of these parties where my in-laws were present, my mother-in-law would bring her Thai Fish Cakes with her as one of the dishes. Hubby's mother is herself Chinese, but her husband is Thai-Chinese.

As hubby's family doesn't share much info and hubby himself doesn't know much about his family's history, I got the scoop from hubby's cousin, who I chat with because we have kids of the same age. It turns out that hubby's father used to own two of the very first Thai restaurants in the LA downtown area. Cousin-in-law used to work there waitressing tables. After awhile, the family sold their businesses, and eventually the restaurants closed down under new owners . In the course of chatting about the restaurants, hubby's cousin also shared with me their recipe for Tod Mun Pla.

Recipe for Tod Mun Pla:
1 lb white fish paste
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
3 kaffir lime leaves (6 kaffir lime leave halves), chopped finely
1/3 cup of Chinese Long Beans, chopped
1.5-2 tablespoons red curry paste

If you can't find fish paste in your locale, you can process a pound of white fish such as cod or tilapia with a teaspoon of cornstarch, 1 tablespoon sugar, a teaspoon of salt, and an egg. Usually I purchase my fish paste in tubs from the store, and these already has egg whites, salt and sugar pre-added.

The red curry paste can be found in Asian supermarkets. If you can't find it, you can substitute a mix of red curry powder and chili powder, but it won't be as fresh.

First chop up the kaffir lime leaves and the long beans. The lime leaves are tough to cut. I stack them on top of each other and cut lengthwise first, then gather them and chop crosswise.

Add all the ingredients to the fish paste. Mix well, and then form flat 1/4 inch thick patties about 1.5 inches in diameter using a spoon to aid you.

Meanwhile, start a pan with about an inch of vegetable oil on the bottom on medium high.

Once the oil is hot, drop in some of the patties, well-spaced, and fry for about 2 minutes per side. Once golden brown, remove the patties and let drain on paper towels.

I like to make all my patties beforehand and then scoop each patty with a spatula into the pan one at a time once I start the frying. But you can also shape each patty as you drop them into the pan. Just do it quickly before the oil stiffens them up.

Since I didn't ask hubby's cousin about the cucumber sauce, this is my own creation, but I've got it pretty much down pat since I've eaten it for so many years at so many parties and family dinners. The only thing I added was the shallot because I like the taste of it in my sauce.

Recipe for the Cucumber Sauce:
1 cup hot water
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 red chilis, sliced
1 cup cucumber (i use pickling cucumbers), quartered and then sliced
1 shallot, sliced (optional)
1 teaspoon chili garlic paste

Dissolve the sugar in the water. Add in the rest of the incredients and then chill. The longer this sits, the more time for the flavors to come out into the sauce, and the better it tastes.

Persimmon and Marinated Salmon Salad

My parents have freaky persimmons. Perfect for Halloween. The first year their persimmon tree produced fruit, the persimmons were the size of cantelopes. I'm not joking. Thinking back I should have entered them into some strange persimmon contest, but I was too young back then to think entrepreneurially. Now the persimmons that the tree produces are smaller, but they are still strange looking and often have these spokes coming off of the main body. Like these....

...and these...

Well, since my parents unloaded some of these freaky persimmons on me, I had to come up various ways to use them up. Now, I also love the Morey marinated, grilled wild Alaskan salmon from Costco and had some on hand, so I had to try persimmon and salmon salad.

I baked half a pound of salmon 400 degrees 20 minutes skin side down. That was enough for 6 servings of salad. You can use any salad and I prefer lots of spinach, but hubby had purchased whatever was on sale, and whatever was on sale was a romaine lettuce/iceberg lettuce/cabbage mix. I'm almost certain that this would taste better with a spinach salad mix.

Dice the persimmons. One to two medium sized persimmons is enough. And you don't need to use freaky persimmons either.

Assemble your salad and serve with ranch or blue cheese dressing. Using a larger portion of the salmon would be great too if you'd like the salad to be a meal in itself.

Has anyone come across persimmons like these?

Grandma's Fish Cake Rolls (Cha Ca)

As long as I can remember, my mom has made these fish cake rolls for us for many, many dinners. I recently found out that this dish was passed on to her by my paternal grandmother, who passed away half a decade ago. I learned to make this from my mom while I was away at college, but since I found out where this dish originated, I can't help but think of my grandma everytime I prepare it.

A note about fish paste (cha ca). You can certainly make it from scratch by grinding up fish by yourself, but since I'm too lazy and tired, I find it rather easy to buy either fresh fish paste or frozen from my local 99 Ranch or another asian supermarket. If you buy the frozen tubs, you will need to defrost it under water before you make it, or let it defrost overnight in the fridge. I've tried defrosting it in the microwave but it ends up cooking it and it becomes clumpy. There are also red fish paste and white fish paste. I've always used the white kind for the rolls.

Does anyone else cook these rolls or have seen them made anywhere? There are fish cakes, of course (and I will write about these in a future post), but I haven't seen any of these fish rolls outside of my family circle.