How to Make Fishballs (鱼蛋)

Plus, a soup and a curry to eat them with.

This week, I wanted to show you how to make Chinese fishballs.

I suppose I should really hesitate when I say “Chinese” fishball, though. There’s… an insane number of different styles and variants of fishballs throughout the country – from Shandong, to Sichuan, to Guangdong… each region has its own way of approaching fish ball. They’re generally firm and springy, but then again, the sort in Shanghai/Yangtze river delta are soft and pillowy.

So the variety that I’ll show you then is the Chaozhou (Teochew) style of Fishball. Why that one? Mostly because that’s (1) the kind that’s used in the ever popular Hong Kong curry fishball (more on that later) and (2) the frozen fishball that you can buy at Asian supermarkets abroad are generally those sort.

The way I’ll organize this then is by first teaching you how to make your own fishballs, then teach you two classic dishes you can make with them. Not interested in a fish-ball-from-scratch project? No worries. You can also use frozen fishballs with these recipes as well.

How to Make Fishballs

Ok, before we even get into this… let’s talk fish.

Unlike a lot of Chinese fishballs, Teochew fishballs use salt-water fish (makes sense if you look at a map). Specifically, three breeds: (1) Lizardfish (那哥鱼) (2) Big eye snapper (大眼鸡) and (3) Spanish Mackerel (马鲛鱼). Of the three, lizardfish is likely the best but… aren’t exactly available at Western supermarkets.

So we used Mackerel because that’s, well, a fish that actually exists outside of Asia… but really, don’t feel limited here. You familiar with surimi, i.e. the stuff that makes imitation crab sticks? I feel pretty confident that anything that could make surimi could also make fishballs. That includes Pollock, Cod, Swordfish, Red Snapper, Shark… etc etc.

That said, know that with some fish it might… just not come together for you. I’d imagine that Atlantic Cod might be the easiest fish to source abroad – and I do think it would work – but I couldn’t tell you for sure. We also did some tests with bream which… didn’t do so well. It’s important to note though that even if it doesn’t work you can certain still save your batch of fishballs! Just add an egg white in there and mix – it’ll come together.

Ingredients, Fishballs

1. Mackerel (马鲛鱼) -or- whatever, ~1-2 fish, 550g of meat. So we used two small mackerel here – these’ll get filleted, and then scraped clean of meat. Our yield was 550g of fish meat from those mackerel.

2. Optional-ish: 55g of sweet potato starch (红薯淀粉). Ok, so Mackerel works for fishballs but (as I said) it’s not the best. Why? Well, mackerel’s pretty damn oily. The name of the game for fishballs is myosin-development: i.e. stirring and mixing the fish until is breaks down and gels together. Same idea as an emulsified sausage, like a mortadella. Oil gets in the way of that process, so the starch can help bring everything together. No matter what fish you use though, I’d first start off with including sweet potato starch, then slowly take it away as you get more confident in your fish’s gel-forming capabilities. Use 10% of your fish weight in starch.

3. Salt, 1 tsp. To help break down the fish – salt helps there. You might even want to consider 1.5-2 tsp to get a bit more assistance on that front.

4. Sugar, 1 tsp. To season.

5. White pepper powder (白胡椒粉), ¼ tsp. To season.

6. Liaojiu, a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), 1 tbsp. Liquid to be added to the fish to make the paste.

7. Ice Cubes -or- Ice Water, 120mL. This’ll go in with our wine. We want everything to be as cold as possible – if things get a bit too warm, the fat in the fish can melt and inhibit that myosin-development.

Process, Fishballs:

So we’ll be using a stand mixer for these guys. Generally we opt for stirring by hand, but fishballs can take a good bit of work to get good and sticky… especially with an oily fish like mackerel. You can stir with chopsticks too of course, just be prepared for a workout.

For the stand mixer itself, try your best to keep it cool. We strapped on some ice packs with an exercise resistance band – I’m sure you can MacGuiver something.

1. Fillet your fish. There’s probably way better resources online for how to fillet fish than me. Or just do what we did, and let your fishmonger fillet it for you. Or just use a fillet straight up (in that case, skip the scraping step in step #3).

2. Soak the fish in cool water for 1-2 hours. So as an interesting aside, for surimi they’ll actually wash the final mince a number of times… then dehydrate, then rehydrate. We don’t need to be so obsessive here, just soak, then squeeze out any excess liquid from that process.

3. Using a knife, scrape off the meat from the fillet. This is assuming your fillet is skin on, of course. If you’re skin off… your job’s more or less done. Also make sure to scrape off the bones to get every last bit of fish.

4. Grab a cleaver, and mince the fish for ~5 minutes until forming a rough-looking paste. If you were starting from a fillet, first dice it, then add another five minutes to the estimated mincing time. When chopping, periodically fold the meat over itself to help get it into a paste. You’re looking for something like this in the end

5. Toss in the fridge for one hour. To cool everything down.

6. Add the starch, the salt, the sugar, and the white pepper powder to the fish. Give it a quick mix.

7. With the paddle attachment, mix the fish paste with the stand mixer on speed 3 while slowly drizzling in the wine/ice water.

8. After 5 minutes, scrape down the paddle. The liquid should be incorporated. Continue to mix on speed 3 for 30 minutes more, every once in a while scraping down the paddle. After 5-10 minutes, the fish’ll start to look like it’s breaking down. Don’t trust its lies, it’s not there yet. We need the fish to not just be pasty, but sticky. After ~30 minutes, if you take a bit of fish and smeared it across your finger should be able to stick rather than slide off.

9. ’Dat’ the mixture: continuously slam the fish paste down ~20 times or so. This develops springiness in the fishball.

10. Form the fishballs. Take a handful of the fish paste and squeeze it – after a couple squeezes, the bit coming out between your thumb and index finger’ll end up much smoother. Use a wet spoon to grab a ball-shaped bit, and drop in some cool water. This kind of thing’s always a bit tough to explain with the written word – a little tough to show in picture form, too. So if you end up making these, maybe check out 3:33 in the video for a better explanation.

11. Over a medium flame, bring your pot of water/fishballs up to 40C, then swap to low heat. Cook for ~30 minutes between 40-50C. Try not to get it up in excess of 70C – the gel forming ability is greatest between 30-60. After 30 minutes, the balls should be able to cleanly roll on a spoon if you took them out.

12. Bring everything up to a boil. Boil for ~1 minute until the fishballs are floating. Transfer to an ice bath.

Once everything’s cool, you can then use the fishballs – or more likely, perhaps, store in the freezer for future use.

Hong Kong Curry Fishballs

So, Hong Kong curry fishballs rely on… Hong Kong curry paste. You’ve got a couple options here.

Does your local Asian supermarket carry Hong Kong curry paste? Awesome – your job’s easy. Barring that, grab some Hong Kong curry powder (if you can find it), and use that… just fry in some oil to get it started. AFAIK I think there’s one brand – Wing Yip – that’s available in North America?

We also have a recipe for Hong Kong curry paste from scratch if you’re so inclined though... Obviously.

Ingredients, Hong Kong Curry Fishballs

1. Fishballs (鱼蛋/黄金鱼蛋), 8-16. Should be able to squeeze up to 16 in there. Frozen fishballs are totally fine, but note that we’ll be deep-frying these guys first. You can actually buy the fried sort (called 黄金鱼蛋) and you’d be completely good to go – no need to thaw even. If you’re using the unfried sort and are opting to deep fry then… don’t burn your house down, please thaw your fishballs.

2. Optional Aromatics: ½ onion (洋葱), 4 cloves garlic, ~2 inches ginger, 2 shallots (干葱), 2 stalks of lemongrass (柠檬草). All cut into rough chunks – as always use just the bottom white portion of the lemongrass. Note that you don’t *need these aromatics – many vendors use solely curry paste.

3. Hong Kong Curry paste (咖喱胆), 2 tbsp.

4. Optional: Tumeric powder (姜黄粉), 1 tsp. For extra color.

5. Water, 500mL

6. Seasoning: 2 tsp salt, 4 tsp sugar.

Process, Hong Kong Curry Fishballs

Ok, so deep-frying the fishballs first is recommended but optional in the end. Just promise that you won’t open a food truck or anything selling these without the pre-fry.

1. Deep fry the fishballs for ~1 minute at 175C. Fry them until they’re ever so slightly golden. Don’t go too far with it, something like this works. Then toss those on a paper towel lined plate.

2. Make the curry base: fry the aromatics, then the curry paste, then add water. With about a tablespoon of oil, first toss in the onion and fry for ~4 minutes. Then go in with the garlic and the shallot, fry for another minute… the ginger and the lemongrass, another minute… and finally the curry paste and the lemongrass. Quick fry, then toss in that pint of water.

3. Toss in the fishballs, bring to a boil.

4. Season, then swap the flame to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.

Fishball Soup

So yeah, this is an absurdly easy soup from Chaozhou that you can find throughout Guangdong. No stock base or anything – this can all come together in a flash. Makes for a nice satisfying quick lunch.

Ingredients, Fishball Soup:

1. Fishballs, ~6. Feel free to use frozen fishballs here – no need to thaw.

2. Zicai (紫菜) – i.e. Gim, Laver, Raw Nori, ~1g. Or about a square inch or two worth. This type of seaweed is the same sort that’s used to make Nori that you know and love (the Nori sheets that you use to make sushi rolls are toasted). It’s also used in Korean cooking where it’s called “Gim” (I think, I don’t know Korean).

3. Water, ~350mL.

4. Romaine lettuce (生菜), two leaves. ‘Leaf’, that’s the counting word for pieces of lettuce, right? I’m having a brain fart.

5. Seasoning: ¼ tsp salt, ¼ tsp sugar, recommended sprinkle of MSG (味精). Definitely don’t need much MSG here… I’d say, like ~12 crystals or so.

6. Deep fried garlic (蒜酥), 1 tsp. The same sort that you’d use in Thai cooking as a topping. If you can’t find it there’s a bunch of recipes online for how to make the stuff.

7. Scallions (葱). A sprinkle, like one sprig chopped.

8. Toasted sesame oil (麻油), ~1/2 tsp. A drizzle.

Process, Teochew Fishball Soup:

If using frozen fishballs, first boil the fishballs until floating and then add the seaweed.

1. To boiling water, toss in the seaweed. Cook for ~30 seconds. Break up the seaweed a bit about those 30 seconds.

2. Add the fishballs. Cook until floating, ~1 minute. If using frozen fishballs, flip these two steps: first boil the fishballs until floating and then add the seaweed.

3. Nestle in the lettuce. Shut off the heat.

4. Add the remaining ingredients.

… and that’s it. Seriously.