Homemade Fish Balls & Yong Tau Foo

Dinner: 15-Apr-2011

Finally successful with those fish balls... The first time I made these fish balls, I used my Barmix (stick blender) to blend the fish meat. However, I think I ended up "spoiling" the fish meat & when the fish balls were formed, they were not bouncy and ended up disintegrating when soaking in the salt water. Determined not to let that 1st bad experience damper my enthusiasm for home made fish balls, I went & bought Pike as recommended by my MIL... This time, I used the back of the knife to pound at the fish & then made those fish balls. They were a great success... Yay!!  The pictures you see here are from my 3rd time making these fish balls but using the Spanish Mackeral fish instead... THE BEST!!! Yummy...  :-) Totally ecstatic with the success of it... there was so much meat I made yong tau foo as well... sooo yummy!  :-)

Recipe adapted from: Rose's Kitchen Blog

Ingredients:
800g Spanish Mackeral (scraped flesh only), I have also used Pike & its pretty good but not as meaty compared to Spanish Mackeral & with longer strands that can get tangled within the fish meat...

Fish paste after Method 6

Solution A: 2 tbsp water + 1/2 tsp salt

Solution B:
100ml water
1/2 tsp sea salt
a dash of pepper
1 tbsp cornflour

Method:

1. Clean fish, wipe dry and fillet with a sharp knife (I got the fish monger to fillet fish for me when I bought it).

Method 8. Forming fish balls

2. Scrape fish flesh from skin and bones using a soup spoon. Note, scrape in direction of "grain" from center point moving outwards.
3. Place fish flesh on a wooden chopping board.
4. Pound the flesh of the fish with the back edge (not sharp edge) of chopper knife until very fine & starting to stick together, adding the salt solution A a little at a time.
5. Place the fish paste in a big bowl, stir in 1 direction until very sticky, adding solution B whilst stirring. You can add some chopped up spring onions, Chinese sausage, etc at this stage to add to the flavour of the fish ball.
6. Take handfuls of the fish paste & throw or slap it against the sides of the bowl till the paste becomes springy.
7. Grease hands & fingers with a little oil (I omitted this step & it was fine, just a little stickier, I guess).

Fish Balls soaking!

8. Take a lump of fish paste and gently squeeze paste out between thumb and index finger to form small balls.
9. Scoop out the balls of fish paste with a spoon and drop them into a bowl of water salted with 1/2 tsp salt.
10.Leave the fish balls to soak in salt water for at least 1/2 hr. (Note: If fish balls done correctly, it will not disintegrate in water! I have first hand experience in this as my 1st go was a total flop... LOL!).

Yong Tau Foo anyone?

11. After fish balls have soaked in the water for 1/2 hr, boil some water & cook them, then enjoy with a bowl of noodles, stuff them into vegies to make yong tau foo or just on its own! :-)

YUMMY!!!! And so much more nutrition for you and the kiddies compared to the store bought frozen ones...

Homemade Fish Balls & Yong Tau Foo