Pictorial: Deep-Fried Dace Fish Balls

[hzrt8w]

Deep-Fried Dace Fish Balls (酥炸鯪魚球)

I found some fresh fish paste made from dace at the 99 Ranch Market in Milpitas. Dace fish paste is very rare in the USA. This was the first time I had seen it. The dace was advertised to be farm-raised domestically. There are a few ways to make dace fish paste: make a soup with tofu and mustard greens, or boiled and served with shredded lettuce and sesame oil and ground white pepper. Tonight I wanted to make an easy deep-fried dace fish balls. The characteristic taste of dace was unmistakable.

Picture of the finished dish:

Serving suggestion: 2 to 3

Preparations:

To make a dipping sauce: Use a small bowl, add 1/4 cup of water. Heat up the water for 10 seconds in a microwave. Add 2 tsp of sugar and dissolve it in warm water. Add 1/4 cup of light soy sauce. Finely chop 1/4 of a jalapeno pepper or 1 Thai chili and add it into the mixture.

Cooking Instructions:

Use 1 container (1 pound) of dace fish paste. If you cannot find dace fish paste, you may use the regular fish paste.

Heat up a small pot of frying oil, at least about 1 inch deep. I like to use peanut oil for deep-frying. Set stove setting to medium high. Heat up the oil to the proper deep-frying temperature. I don't use a thermometer. Just spare a small spoonful of fish paste and drop it in the oil bath for testing. If the fish paste doesn't sizzle, the oil is too cold - wait for a little longer. If the fish paste immediately turns dark, the oil is too hot - add more frying oil to cool it down a little, then test again. The right temperature is indicated by the fish paste sizzling but not vigorously.

There is a fairly quick and easy way to make a roughly round fish ball from paste. It is not "elegant". You need to use your bare hand. Here is the trick. Use one hand to grap some fish paste in your palm. Squeez your hand into a fist. The fish paste will be squeezed out between your thumb and your index finger like a tooth paste, in a roughly round shape. Use the other hand to hold a spoon, and quickly scoop up the fish paste as if it is ice cream. Then quickly drop the fish paste into the frying oil.

Repeat the same process and drop the fish balls into the frying oil.

Deep-fry up to perhaps 10 at a time until the fish balls turn golden brown. Remove.

Lay the fish balls on a sheet of paper towel to absorb the excess frying oil.

Transfer dace fish balls to a serving plate. Serve with dipping sauce. Place 1 to 2 sprigs of cilantro as a garnish.

Edited November 10, 2005 by hzrt8w (log)

[AzianBrewer]

The is an awesome dish with beer, shochu and sake!!! My friend's wife normally chopped up some dried shrimps and incorporate them with the fish paste.

[Dejah]

We need to all converge on Ah Leung's house to taste these delicious pictorials first hand!

[hzrt8w]

[...]My friend's wife normally chopped up some dried shrimps and incorporate them with the fish paste.

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With regular (generic) fish paste, it is common to add dried shrimps and reconstituted black mushrooms (chopped) to enhance the taste.

With dace fish balls, I think it is the best to appreciate the fish without other add-ons.

[mizducky]

The fish balls look yummy. (Maybe I'll serve them instead of gefilte fish some day! ) But since I've never had dace before, your comments about the fish's distinctive taste intrigue me--could you say a little about what it tastes like?

Oh, and just for grins--I went Googling to find out more about this fish, and found this. (I note that this fellow seems to be describing--and waxing humorous about--a different version of this dish...)

[jtnippon1985]

Looks delicious...but I have a problem with finding fish paste anywhere here in Raleigh, NC...at any of the Asian grocery stores I go to, almost all of them have a Hispanic workers manning the counter (nothing against them, so please don't think I'm being racist or anything..) and have very little knowledge of fish products, outside of taking a fish you pick out, scaling, cleaning, filleting etc etc...and I can never get the head of the department at any time I go...

So, is there any frozen fish paste brand out there? Or a recipe to make fish paste from ingredients I can easily find at the local Asian markets?

[edit] found a frozen fish paste from featherback called Cha Ca That Lat () , under the brand Country Flavor corp based out of El Monte, CA...

here is the pic:

would this work?

Edited November 10, 2005 by jtnippon1985 (log)

[Yuki]

I would love some dace fish balls to go with my congee now. A traditional dipping sauce for dace fish balls would be fermented clam dipping sauce which might be too fishy for some people.

[hzrt8w]

[...] found a frozen fish paste from featherback called Cha Ca That Lat ,under the brand Country Flavor corp based out of El Monte, CA...

would this work?

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jon: I have seen this brand of frozen fish cake carried my local Asian grocery markets too. I haven't used them before but it should be fine.

[hzrt8w]

[...] A traditional dipping sauce for dace fish balls would be fermented clam dipping sauce which might be too fishy for some people.

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I have thought about it too. The best deep-fried dace fish balls that I had was at Lo Fu Kee in Central, Hong Kong, as mentioned in Cha Xiu Bao's webpage.

The fermented clam dipping sauce really compliments the fish balls. Unfortunately I have not seen this in jars in the Asian markets. Or perhaps I was not looking at the right place. Even for native Hong Kongers, the first byte would take some getting used to! Then the taste grows on you!

[hzrt8w]

If you cannot find fish paste in the local grocery markets, don't be despaired. You can grind your own fish paste from scratch with a food processor quite easily.

Get some fresh fish. Take the filet. Cut in small pieces. Put in a food processor and grind it for a good 1 to 2 minutes. If you don't have a food processor, just use a cleaver and chop on the fish filet (periodically scoop it and turn it) for a good 5 minutes or so. For bouncy textures, throw the fish paste against the mixing bowl or pot for a 2 to 3 feet distance for a few minutes.

My father used to make his own fish paste from scratch. I got used to hearing the knocking sound from the cleaver when I went through high school.

I cannot tell you which types of fish to use. Some are more suitable for making fish paste than the others. Just don't use the previously-frozen fish filet. Need to use the fresh ones. The fresher the better.

[spaghetttti]

The process: blend and throw. I like that!! Builds muscles dat!

What seasonings to use?

[Dejah]

The process:  blend and throw.  I like that!! Builds muscles dat!

What seasonings to use?

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For sure, I think you'd need fresh ground pepper, salt, and maybe grated ginger?

[jo-mel]

Is the dace paste firm?

I always use that fist - squeeze method for meatballs, but the mix is nice and firm.

[Dejah]

Is the dace paste firm?

I always use that fist - squeeze method for meatballs, but the mix is nice and firm.

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I use that same method making buns...good old fashion yeast buns...not baos.

[hzrt8w]

Is the dace paste firm?

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It's soft and bouncy. And in a Cantonese description: It bounces off your teeth.

[AzianBrewer]

Is the dace paste firm?

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It's soft and bouncy. And in a Cantonese description: It bounces off your teeth.

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Or al dente in Italian...

[jtnippon1985]

[update] i just was in Grand Asia Market last night and lo and behold, i found fish paste...it looks EXACTLY like the fish paste you have...whitish gray with little specs of dark black matter in it. it was frozen though. but at least its better than nothing...or having to make my own

i will try and make this recipe as soon as i move, then upload the pics of the finished dish....hopefully i dont massacre anything seeing as deep frying and i have a bad history together...

Edited November 12, 2005 by jtnippon1985 (log)