Thai fish cake tod mun pla

Ingredients

500g mackerel fillet (you can substitute snapper, swordfish, ling or barramundi)
3 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
1 egg white
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon sugar
½ cup finely sliced snake beans*
6 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
vegetable oil, for deep-frying

Sweet Chilli Syrup:
1/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup white vinegar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 fresh long red chilli, halved, seeded and finely chopped (optional)
1/4 cup cucumber, seeded and finely diced

Method

1. Flake fish with a spoon. Mix fish, curry paste, egg white, salt and sugar and knead with your hands. Mix through snake beans and kaffir lime leaves.
2. For the sweet chilli syrup, heat the sugar, vinegar, fish sauce and 2 Tbsp water in a saucepan for about 3 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool. Place chilli and cucumber in a bowl and pour over cool syrup. Set aside until ready to serve.
3. Heat enough vegetable oil in a saucepan or wok to deep-fry. When the oil is hot, pinch off tablespoons of the fish mixture and carefully drop into oil. Cook in batches for 2-3 minutes or until golden. Drain on paper towel. Serve with sweet chilli syrup.
4. Note- snake beans are available from some Asian grocery stores. Substitute green beans if unavailable

Thai salad dressing

Ingredients

20 Thai bird chilies (พริกขี้หนูสวน)

15 cloves of garlic (กระเทียม)
6 Tbsp lime juice (น้ำมะนาว)
3 Tbsp water (น้ำเปล่า)

2 Tbsp fish sauce (น้ำปลา), alternatively use only salt or some salt and some fish sauce if you don't like the fishy sauce flavor - some Thais prefer using only salt in their seafood sauce.
½ tsp of salt for pounding the chilies and garlic (เกลือ)
1 Tbsp table sugar or palm sugar (น้ำตาล) - or you can use much less 

Method:

1. Add the bird chilies and peeled cloves of garlic into a mortar and pestle. Toss in ½ teaspoon of salt, and start pounding until coarse, making sure all the oils are released (should take 5 - 10 mins). Alternatively, blend or use a food processor or even just mince if you need to, but grinding by hand is the best method.
2. Add the crushed chilies and garlic to a bowl, then add the lime juice, water, fish sauce (or salt), and sugar, and mix thoroughly.
3. Start adding the ingredients especially the fish sauce and sugar gradually, and taste test and add more as needed.