Step-by-step guide to making fishballs

Remember my post about me dad's fantastic homemade mackerel fish balls?

I know I promised to tell you how he makes it ya?

Anyway that's what this post is going to about: fishball making.

It's a relatively easy task actually. Or maybe my dad makes it seem so easy.

He's so cute - he bought some mackerels and then called me to the kitchen to take photos of him making the fishballs. He thought it'll be fun for you guys to see how it's being made.

And so, here I go... with a step-by-step guide to making authentic fishballs sans chemicals and what not:

1. First of all, you got to remove the fishie's innards. That includes the eggs, stomach et al. How do you remove them? You got to take a scissors (use a strong kitchen scissors please), and cut the side of the fish like so:



See the egg sac and all? Remove them.

2. Lay your precious fishie on a chopping board and then with a chopper (or any knife... just be careful with your fingers! haha), slice the flesh off the bones:



Do it for both sides of the fish and then you'll get this:



3. Now, with a spoon, scrape the fish flesh off the bones:



Make sure you don't waste any flesh. Scrape clean! But be careful to remove all bones. Now, you will keep the flesh in a bowl:



There will be quite a bit of flesh. That photo above was taken before Dad finished scraping all the fish meat.

4. What do you do with all that flesh? Simple. If you have a food processor, great, if not, a kitchen blender would do as well. What you want to do, is to make a fish paste out of the fish flesh. So do ensure you blend/process/mix the flesh well. After which, you season it with some salt and then viola - you have homemade fish balls! Trust me, it's that easy. Now you can scoop balls of it and add them to your soup.

But wait, what about the rest of the fish? In case you don't feel like wasting the rest of the fish, here's what you can do:



Chop up the fish skins and dip it in some egg and flour and fry it, for something to munch on before dinner.

You could also use the fish head and fish eggs to make assam pedas:



Gorgeous eh? My dad made it. He's a resourceful and wonderful cook.

Check out the fish head:



Mmmmmm.... i'm drooling at the pictures right now as I type this. I love the orangey hue. It speaks of the sour tang and spiciness of the dish. Amazing.

Dad rocks! And oh, guess what, he made Ayam Buah Keluak for dinner last night! Argh, but I haven't tasted it yet... cos I had dinner plans already. Nvm, I will have some later.

So anyway, hope you find this basic guide simple enough to spur you on to making your own homemade fishballs. Good luck and have a great weekend!!!