Bouncing Balls... (or how to make fish balls "Q-Q")

Chinese Fish Ball Tang Hoon Soup

When the cold north winds blows, one of the best things to have is a good steaming bowl of soup. I love all manner of soups - thick rich pumpkin soups, old fashioned minestrone with lots of vegetables and beans and my all time favourite; a hearty split pea with ham. Sometimes, I get a craving for soups from my childhood - peppery, garlicky "bak kut teh" (pork rib "tea" / soup) and recently fish ball "tang hoon" (bean vermicelli) soup.

Problem is, out here in the Kootenays, fish balls are as rare as polar bears in the Straits of Malacca. So it's back to DIY. I had tried this once before and ended up with very soft fish balls, more like fish quenelles, rather than the typical springy bouncy texture that chinese fish balls have. This texture is also described as "QQ" - for the life of me, I do not know the chinese word for it, so I'll have to make do with the onomatopoeia.

The key or secret to springy fish balls has to do with food science. Remember how we have to knead bread dough to develop the gluten and make those strands all tangled and tight? And that these gluten strands trap the CO2 given off by the yeast giving a nice crumb and also providing that chewy texture? Meat / fish have protein strands and these strands need to be developed in a similar manner. Typically, the fishmonger in the Asian wet market will take hand-fulls of minced fish meat and slap or thrown them vigorously against the side of a large basin. We do that in the home kitchen too, but being mindful of clean-up afterward, one might chose to do this with the basin in a deep sink or else line your worktop with newspaper. Also important is not to use a food processor that finely minces the fish meat - this makes that tangle of protein strands harder to achieve. Once you have roughly  chopped the fish meat, the remainder of the "mincing" process should be carried out with the flat, non sharp edge of a chef's knife or chinese cleaver.

Pieces of firm white fish

The fish that I used was any firm white fish that I could find in the supermarket. Usually in SE Asia, the best fish balls are made with spanish mackerel or yellowtail snapper.

A word about the other ingredients:
1. Tang Hoon: vermicelli made from mung bean flour - available in most Asian grocers
2. Tian Jin Dong Choy (天津冬菜) - - available in some Asian grocers - salty, garlicky

Tian Jin preserved cabbage

Chinese Fish Balls
Ingredients:
1 kg white fish fillet, deboned (I used haddock)
1-2 tsp table salt (depending on how salty one likes their fish balls)
1/4 - 1/2 tsp white pepper
1 Tabsp corn starch

Method:
1. finely chop then mince the fish meat as described above
2. add the salt and pepper
3. gather up the fish mixture and throw / slap it vigorously against the side of a deep basin (I counted 100 throws)
4. add the cornstarch and mix thoroughly - a few more slaps would not hurt!
5. test cook a fish ball in boiling water to check for taste and texture - if it is not "QQ" enough, throw it about a bit more

Forming & Cooking the fish balls:
1. Bring a large pot of water to simmering (add 1tsp salt to each litre of water)
2. gather up a handful of fish mixture in your left hand (if you are right handed)
3. gently squeeze a small quantity through an "O" created by the thumb and fore-finger of the left hand and using a tablespoon dipped in cold water, scoop up a ball and drop that gently into the simmering water. (it will sink)
4. Once the fish ball is cooked, it will float to the top, scoop it out and place in a bowl.
5. Depending on the size of your pot, you can cook about 6-10 fish balls at a time.

This recipe makes approximately 24 fishballs

Cut the fish into small pieces 

finely chop the fish meat

gather the fish meat in both hands and "slap" it back into the basin with a good wrist action

the final result should look smooth and shiny

Forming the fish balls (1) - take a small handful in non dominant hand

Forming the fish balls (2) - use a teaspoon and scoop a round ball about 2cm diameter

Drop uncooked fish ball into simmering salted water

Fish balls will float when cooked

Fish Ball "Tang Hoon" soup

• 1L fish stock
• 24 fish balls
• handful coriander / cilantro - chopped
• small bunch scallions / spring onions - chopped
• deep dried finely chopped garlic
• deep fried finely sliced shallots
• 2 small bundles bean vermicelli (not rice vermicelli) - soaked in cold water and cut into 3-4inch lengths with a pair of scissors
• 1 Tbsp Tian Jin Dong Choy (天津冬菜) preserved vegetable rinsed and roughly chopped

Make the soup!

1. bring the fish stock to boil
2. add fish balls and preserved vegetable
3. add the vermicelli
4. simmer for 10min
5. season to taste
6. add as much cilantro and spring onions as you like
7. sprinkle with deep friend onions and garlic just prior to serving

Makes 4 servings of 6 fish balls each

cooked fish balls

Chinese Style Steamed Fish and Oysters

Coming to the end of the week and looking forward (?) to a weekend "on call" for work, I was hankering for a good chinese seafood dinner.

With the rather poor options for eating out in our little town, the best alternative was to cook. So, popped into the local - very good - supermarket (Ferraro's Foods), I picked out the freshest bit of fish I could see. And it so happened to be sole, a lovely bit of finely textured white fish, perfect for steaming. And it was on "special" too! Yay!
Hmm... the fillet was a bit small, so quickly asked for a tub of Fanny Bay Oysters also on sale for $3.90. Yum, this would make a tasty combo.

Once home, it was a simple matter of cooking some fragrant Thai Jasmine rice in the microwave whilst the seafood was being prepared. In the time it took for the rice to cook, all the prep work plus steaming of the fish was done and all I had to do was to precisely time the frying of shallots and garlic and pour the resultant hot oil mixture over the fish with a very satisfying sizzle!

The fish was done just right, flaked beautifully, melt in mouth tenderness, the mild flavour served as a foil for the aromatic green herbs and crunchy onion and garlic bits. The oysters turned out better than expected - plump, juicy and still with a slight crunch. Again the fragrant oils and green herbs complemented the briny almost metallic taste of the bivalve.

Would have gone very well with a chilled Riesling... but next time perhaps!

Ingredients:

• 1 large fillet of sole (or similar, halibut will do nicely too)
• Fresh oysters, (shucked, optional)
• Cilatro leaves, fresh, roughly chopped
• Spring Onions, fresh, finely sliced
• dried garlic flakes
• dried onion flakes
• 1 fresh red chilli, finely sliced
• fresh ginger - about 1 inch - finely juliened
• peanut oil - 4 Tbsp
• sesame oil - 1 tsp
• light soy sauce - 3 Tbsp

You'll also need a large wok with cover or a steamer

Method:

1. make sure the fish has been thoroughly deboned, cut into large portions about 5x8cm
2. lay fish in a heat proof dish (e.g. Pyrex)
3. lay the shucked oysters over the fish, generously layering juliened ginger in between and over all the pieces of seafood
4. bring water to boil in the wok, and place dish with seafood onto a steaming rack, cover and steam at high heat for 5min
5. Whilst fish is cooking, heat peanut oil in a saucepan, add dried onions and garlic to brown - this will take about 2 min, so time it to coincide with the end of the 5min cooking time for the fish
6. Once fish is cooked, remove from steamer, drizzle with soy sauce, sprinkle with cilantro, spring onion and red chilli and pour the very hot oil over the whole assembly. (it was sizzle and spit!)
7. Serve immediately - Enjoy!

In a new home.. Rossland

Wow, it's been almost a year since the last post, guess life has been kinda busy. We've moved from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere, leaving in winter and arriving to enjoy some heat (& humidity) in Vancouver before flying across to Rossland to experience a fabulous late Summer and Fall.
Never in our lives have we had such a stretch of sunny days, clear blue skies.
We'll do some catch up hopefully, with some of the hiking, food foraging and cooking that has taken place since then.

In the meantime, a brief offering of improvisation - trying to do a chinese steamed fish in our temp accomodation showed that we could do the same with the microwave and less mess!

A Tale of Two Chippies (apologies to Charles Dickens)

"IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.... " Indeed. A hot summer evening.. a Sunday that had seen some weather change from grey and blustery to warm sunshine. What better than a walk down to the Waterfront for a bite and a drink or two? The Viaduct was teeming with people, locals, tourists, all wanting a bit of sun and sea-breeze. The more popular watering holes were already crowded with revellers who looked like they had been there enjoying themselves for a while. Flushed faces (or was it sun?), laughter, music. Lively guitar music emanated from O Hagen's Irish Pub which was bursting at its seams with a very happy crowd. As it looked like we could not get in, we decided on a neighbouring drink spot from which we could hear the music. Sky Sport Bar and Grill had been advertised on local TV as having an amazing range of beers on tap and the sister F&B Outlet of the famous Foodstore restaurant just round the corner. Menu looked decent, usual suspects for a Sports Bar and decent prices too.  Can't be too bad, might even be good.

SkySport Bar and Grill Beer Menu Part 1

Sat ourselves down, took a while to look over the extensive list of beers on tap and I ordered an Epic Armageddon IPA, and Foodie Friend (FF) had a Renaissance Perfection Pale Ale. Beers came quickly, nice and crisp and cold. The way they should be. The Epic IPA was wonderfully hoppy, flowery and bursting with zingy flavour in the mouth. Refreshing, thirst quenching. Made a mental note to look for it in local supermarket. Foodie friend's Perfection Pale Ale was good too. but paled (sorry) in comparison to mine. Was supposed to have toffee notes.. it was sort of caramel-ly, but mine was a better summer drink.

Thirst quenched, we decided on food. That was when trouble started. Sorry, we have run out of beef, lamb and pork. (This was 6pm) Hmm.. that's bad planning on the part of the management. It wasn't even dinner time yet. Never mind, I chose fish and chips ($19.00) and friend chose 3 sliders from the limited chicken or fish selection. Food took about 30min to arrive - which was rather long as there weren't many people eating. Most were still making the most of Happy Hour, amassing un-drunk pints on the table before 7pm. My fish and chips arrived in a newspaper cone, kitsch but acceptable presentation. The portion size was amazing. Amazingly small. I could count the number of chips, which turned out to be just barely cooked, dense and neither crunchy on the outside nor fluffy on the inside. The beer battered fish (what fish ?) tasted fishy and the batter was soggy. And it was smaller than an iPhone. The Worst.

SkySports Fish & Chips

Underwhelmed. FF's sliders - why are they called sliders? Some reference to baseball I'm sure. Sliders are like mini burgers with meat / veg / whatever in between and meant to be a tasty little morsel.

SkySports Sliders

Well, the sliders that we had, the buns - were stale, we could have played baseball with them. The chicken was ordinary as was the piece of beer battered fish. Hmm.. wait a minute, did they serve the portion of fish meant for the slider on my plate of fish and chips? Sad. Quickly ate up, paid and went out into the fresh air to enjoy the lively music from O Hagen's.

Still hungry as we drove home, we decided to stop by The Chip Shop at the Royal Oak Roundabout. This multi-award winning chip shop is consistently good and has been a favourite for many years.
Always busy, and when we arrived the wait was 20min, but that was fine. We strolled to Pak and Save to get us a pint or 2. 1 scoop of award winning chips, a breaded Tarakihi and (horrors!) a fried Mars Bar. All for $10. Cheerful efficient service. Walking back to the car with warm pack of fish and chips - and later enjoying it at home - affirmed our conviction that good food, cheerful service in unpretentious environs beats fancy stuff hands down. The portion of chips was generous, crunchy on the outside and fluffy within, they did not become soggy even after an hour of slow eating. The fish was fresh, with a delicious breadcrumb coating. The Best.

The Chip Shop's Fish & Chips

Fried Mars bar (we wont repeat that again soon) deliciously sinful.

So, as I said, it was the best (of fish & chips) and the worst (fish & chips).

BBQ Stingray (Skate)

Recently I had a rare craving for good old Singapore Hawker food and one of the things that came to mind was BBQ Stingray. And as luck would have it, a visit to the Chinese Fish Market in Newmarket, Auckland produced a good sized Skate wing. It was reasonably fresh, had just the slightest "fishy" odour.

Did I know how to prepare skate? nope, never mind, a quick whizz through the WWW would give me some answers.So here's a pictoral account of our attempt at BBQ Stingray:

Here's the Skate (Stingray) wing, just out of the bag

Skate Wing

 The first thing during preparation is to remove the skin (I've never seen cooks at Asian Hawker centres do this, but apparently it makes for better eating). After removing the skin, soak the pieces in acidulated water for an hour or 2. Cling-film the basin and keep in fridge to prevent the fish from going off. (Add the juice of 1 lemon to a basin of water). This is supposed to remove any traces of ammonia smell.

Removing skin from Skate Wing

Remove from water, pat dry with paper towels, and spread with a sambal mixture. I cheated (and saved my neighbours from the pungent smell of roasting belachan) and used a few tablespoonfuls of ready to eat Sambal Blachan bought from the local Asian grocery store. To the ready made mixture, I added a sachet of tomato paste and minced onions Spread them over the prepared fish, place on a foil lined baking tray, cover with foil and pop into a pre-heated oven @180C for 20min. Once the fish is nearly cooked, remove top foil and grill under a hot grill till nice and brown. This created quite a bit of really aromatic smoke! Quick! Open doors and window! Fan the smoke to prevent the smoke detector from going off !! We even turned on the standing fan and blew that at our ceiling smoke detector... phew!

vigorous fanning....

 But, hey the result was pretty close to the real thing... 

BBQ Stingray with sambal belachan