The only time when I really enjoyed eating fish balls was probably during my primary school days when I’d order fish ball noodles soup at recess time. Over the years, I seemed to have lost interest in these balls that I used to like because the commercial ones have added flour and don’t taste of fish at all.
I saw some lovely slabs of fresh batang fillet (spanish mackerel) at NTUC Fairprice and was suddenly inspired to make my own fish balls.
Fish Balls Recipe
Ingredients (makes 10-12 balls)
400g fresh batang fillet
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp corn flour mixed with 2 tbsp water
dash of white pepper
Instructions
1. Remove any skin on the batang fillet and roughly slice it up.
2. Using the back of a cleaver in an up-down motion, pound the batang fillet on a large chopping board till the fish meat gets minced up. Season with fish sauce and white pepper.
3. Gradually add the corn flour mixture and repeat the pounding till the fish becomes a lump of smooth paste.
4. Wet your hands, place a tablespoonful of fish paste onto your palm and roll into a ball. Transfer to a plate.
5. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Drop the fish balls into the boiling water and remove them once they float to the top.
I made beehoon (rice vermicelli) soup with chicken stock and added the fish balls in. I love how firm and springy the texture of the fish balls is. Best of all, each ball is meaty and full of fish flavour. Yummy. Nothing beats home-made fish balls like these! Enjoy!
I have not tried making fishballs at home, thanks for sharing this!
might be a good idea to add fishballs to your bentos next time 🙂
no need to soak in salty water? thanks for sharing this interesting recipe. it’s amazing to be able to make one’s own fishballs 😀
No need to soak because the paste is quite solid so quite easy to shape into balls 🙂
oh is that the soaking reason? I thot was to make it springy, lol…
Oh, I never knew soaking helps to keep them springy. The fish ball seller at the wet market near my home always ask me to soak them to ‘keep them in shape and prevent them from sticking to one another’ lol but I didn’t soak mine cos they weren’t sticky anyway. Maybe I will try next time and see if there’s any difference.