My grandmother´s recipe heritage has been used by three generation in our family: my grandma(nenek), my mother(ibu) and me :). This dish really bring me back to my childhood. I used to help her and my mother to make the fishballs. They made fishballs with feeling, without measurement so that I just know the basic recipe. Normally, Fishballs contain tapioca flour, white eggs to keep them firm. But she used only Ikan Tenggiri (in Indonesia, species called Tenggiri: Scomberomorus guttatus) or Spanish Mackerel (Scomberomorus commerson), coconut milk and spices.
Years a go, I tried to make it with fish paste (not spanish mackerel) that I bought in an Asia Markt. It turned out horribly. The fishballs broken , spreading and floating everywhere in the water :(. That was my first trial and error using another kind of fish. To get the best result, the choice of fish type is important. So, Please don´t blame me if this recipe doesn´t work with other kinds of fish :). Anyway, don´t throw it away you can still make fishballs for Tekwan (see the recipe here).
Hopefully, this entry is suitable for Original recipe, Culinarty round-up arranged by Lore.
Ingredients: for Homemade Fishballs, makes about 40
500 g ikan Tenggiri/spanish Mackerel (discard bones and skins), minced
4 tablespoons coconut milk
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 shallots, grinded
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
salt to taste
directions: Store minced fish/fish paste in the freezer for about 1-2 hours. Then combine fish paste with other ingredients together until mix well. Balls the fish paste for about 1 teaspoon , smear both of your hands with cooking oil. Pour about 1,5 litre water in a large saucepan, boil the water. Place fishballs in the boil water then turn the heat down, keep simmering until the fishballs floating on the surface of water. Set aside.
for the Fishballs soup:
40 Homemade fishballs
4 carrots, cut into pieces
3 potatos, peel and cut into pieces
1,5 litre fish stock
2 cm ginger, bruised
4 shallots, finely sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
white ground pepper and salt to taste
1/6 tsp nutmeg
1 stalk celery or spring onion, chopped
3 tbsp cooking oil
directions: saute shallots and garlics until fragrant in a large saucepan. Pour in fish stock and ginger. Add fishballs, potatos, salt, nutmeg. Keep them simmer for a while. Finally, add carrots. Serve hot and garnish with chopped celery or spring onion.
