Sweetcorn Cakes (Thai Takeaway Style)

Thai takeaway style sweetcorn cakes on a serving plate with sweet chilli sauce.

Recreate a restaurant classic with this Thai style sweetcorn cakes recipe. Light, crispy golden corn fritters have a delicious subtle aromatic curry and lime leaf flavour.


Thai sweetcorn cakes (Tod Man Khao Pod) are a popular Thai starter or snack that you can find in Thaikhun in Glasgow, and on most Thai restaurant menus. Sweetcorn is flavoured with aromatic Thai curry paste & Makrut lime leaf, mixed with flour and fried, resulting in a fragrant and deliciously crispy snack, perfect with sweet chilli sauce.

Ingredients For Sweetcorn Cakes

To make these easy Thai takeaway style sweetcorn cakes, we will, of course need some sweetcorn. You can use tinned or frozen corn for this recipe. The corn is made flavourful and aromatic with Thai curry paste, spring onion, lime leaf and fish sauce, with egg, plain flour and potato starch or cornflour added to the mix.

Sweetcorn: Frozen or tinned corn kernels.
Other Ingredients: Massaman Curry Paste, Fish Sauce, Makrut Lime Leaf, Spring Onion, Egg, Sea Salt, Plain Flour, Potato Starch, Baking Powder, Oil For Deep Frying.

How To Make Thai Takeaway Style Sweetcorn Cakes

To make these tasty Thai sweetcorn cakes, half of the corn is blended with the curry paste, flavourings and egg. This makes a light and fluffy mix, with the remaining sweetcorn added for texture. With flour mixed through, the corn cakes are ready to be fried in hot oil.

Step 1: Blend The Corn

Put half of the rinsed and drained sweetcorn in a blender jug.  Add the red curry paste, kaffir lime leaf, spring onion, fresh coriander and whisked egg.  Blend until the ingredients are combined and pour the blended mix into a large bowl.

Step 2: Add The Remaining Ingredients

To the blended mix, add the remaining sweetcorn, sea salt, plain flour, potato flour or cornflour and baking powder.  Mix well.  Check the consistency of the mix and add a little more flour if necessary – the batter should fall slowly off of a spoon.

Cover the mix and set aside in the fridge for 30 minutes.  If desired, the mix may stay in the fridge at this stage for up to 24 hours (it may need a little extra flour again just before cooking).

Step 3: Fry The Sweetcorn Cakes

Heat oil for deep frying to around 160c.  Carefully drop tablespoons of the corn batter into the hot oil and fry the fritters for 3-4 minutes, turning occasionally until golden and crispy on all sides. Fry the sweetcorn cakes in batches and keep warm in a low oven until they’re all fried.

Step 4: Serve Thai Style Sweetcorn Cakes

Arrange the sweetcorn cakes on a serving plate and serve with sweet chilli sauce.

I hope you’ll try this Thai takeaway style sweetcorn cakes recipe. If you do, let me know in the comments how it went!


Sweetcorn Cakes (Thai Takeaway Style)

Light, crispy corn fritters, flavoured with Thai curry paste & makrut lime leaf.
5 from 1 vote
Print Rate
Cuisine: Thai
Keyword: corn fritters, thai, tod man khao pod
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Servings: 12 fritters

Ingredients

  • 325g tin of sweetcorn rinsed & drained (260g drained weight)
  • 2 teaspoons Thai massaman curry paste
  • dash fish sauce
  • 1 generous pinch dried makrut lime leaf crushed
  • 1 spring onion finely sliced
  • 1/2 whisked egg see notes below
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 heaped tablespoons plain flour or as needed
  • 2 heaped tablespoons potato flour or cornflour or as needed
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • vegetable oil for deep frying
  • sweet chilli sauce to serve

Instructions

  • Put half of the rinsed and drained sweetcorn in a blender jug.  Add the red curry paste, kaffir lime leaf, spring onion, fresh coriander and whisked egg.  Blend until the ingredients are combined and pour the blended mix into a large bowl.
  • To the blended mix, add the remaining sweetcorn, sea salt, plain flour, potato flour or cornflour and baking powder.  Mix well.  Check the consistency of the mix and add a little more flour if necessary – the batter should fall off of a spoon in one lump.
  • Cover the mix and set aside in the fridge for 30 minutes.  If desired, the mix may stay in the fridge at this stage for up to 24 hours (it may need a little extra flour again just before cooking).
  • Heat the oil for deep frying to around 160c.  Carefully place teaspoon sized amounts of the corn batter into the hot oil and fry the fritters for 3-4 minutes, turning occasionally until golden and crispy on all sides.  Don’t overcrowd the pan, fry just a few fritters at a time and keep warm in a low oven if necessary whilst you finish cooking the remaining fritters.
  • Arrange the fried Thai corn fritters on a serving plate and serve with sweet chilli sauce.

Notes

I’ve used just half an egg in this recipe as this still makes enough corn fritters to serve 4 people easily – just whisk an egg and carefully add half of it to the mix (I typically use the other half in a Thai noodle dish such as Pad See Ew to serve at the same time). You can, of course, double the recipe and use a whole egg if desired.  The corn fritter batter will keep in the fridge for 24 hours if you’d prefer to prepare the night before.

Do you like this Thai takeaway style sweetcorn cakes recipe? If so, buying a copy of my book might appeal to you! In The Thai Takeaway Secret you can find a host of restaurant and takeaway style recipes that you can make at home. You’ll learn how to make chicken satay skewers, massaman curry, drunken noodles, crispy volcano chicken and more! You can buy The Thai Takeaway Secret in paperback or kindle form here.

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2 thoughts on “Sweetcorn Cakes (Thai Takeaway Style)

  1. 5 stars
    This is a fantastic recipe, absolutely delicious. We have also made them with red curry and green curry paste (depending on what we have in the fridge) which gives each batter mix a nice variety. Also tried slightly varying the whole corn / blended corn ratio but usually follow the recipe.

    The only downside is I spend all my time frying them up in small batches while the rest of the household eat them before I can get to them.

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