Simple Fish Ball Soup [Home-made Fish Balls]

I hardly buy or make fish ball simply because both T and I are not big fan of it. I do like yong tau fu though but prefer with meat stuffing. Now, we have a junior food tester who likes fish ball so much so I tried to satisfy him since he does not like fish that much. Home-made is always the best as I know what I feed him.

I was thinking to take some shoots of step-by-step fish ball making but my hands got really fishy and did not think it was good idea to play with my camera. In fact, this recipe is quite simple with just a handful ingredients - fish flesh, salt, pepper, ice water and some tapioca starch. Key point is to mix and blend the fish really well until fine and smooth fish paste is formed. So fine and smooth that until no more trace of fish flesh can be seen. Well, I got to admit that I did not do a good job on that as my fish balls were not as bouncy as store-bought.

J seemed love it and he finished up all the soup except wakame. Do not throw away the water used for cooking the fish balls it is a pot of yummy soup!

Ingredients (2-3 servings):
200g Fish Flesh (I used Mackerel)
15g Tapioca Starch
50ml Iced Water
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Sugar
Pinch of White Pepper

Soup:
800ml
Water
Few slices of carrot
Wakame (optional)

Methods:

1. Slice or chop the fish, keep in the freezer for an hour or so. Put all ingredients in the food processor and process until pale in colour smooth paste is formed.
2. Fill a pot with water, put on the stove and boil with low heat.
3. To make fish ball, wet one hand with cold water then grab some fish paste. Make a small "O" shape with thumb and pointer finger and squeeze the fish paste out through the "O" shape. It will form a small ball eventually, scrap it off with a spoon and drop it into the pot of water. Repeat this process for the rest of fish paste.
4. Turn the heat up a little to cook the fish balls. Once cooked, they will be floating on the surface. Remove from hot water (reserve the water) and chill them into pot of icy water. Drain and set aside.
5. For soup, use the same pot of hot water used for cooking fish balls. Drop in carrot and other vegetables if desired, bring to boil and add salt to taste. Lastly, add in wakame and fish balls.

Cook's Notes:

1. The purpose of chilling the fish flesh and using iced water in the fish paste making process is to keep the freshness of fish.
2. If making without food processor, chop the fish flesh until very fine stage then use a mixer to mix it.
3. This is simple version, tofu and other vegetables such as cabbage and shiitake mushroom can be added into this soup.