Vietnamese Bronze Featherback Fish Cake
- 300 gr scraped flesh from bronze featherback fish
- 5 shallots
- 5 cloves garlic
- 5 white stemed scallions
- 1 teaspoon seasoning powder
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 3-5 sprigs fresh dill, de-rooted
- Prepare the ingredients.
- Finely chop shallots, garlic, white stems of scallions; chop dill into small pieces.
- Apply some cooking oil on the mortar then add featherback fish.
- Add shallots, garlic, white stems of scallions, dill, ground black pepper, seasoning powder into the mortar and mix well.
- You can use hands to knead the fish paste until combined well.
- The more you knead, the more chewy the fish cake will be.
- After kneading, smear the fish paste with a pestle or spoon in about 10 minutes.
- Add fish sauce and continue smearing in 5 minutes.
- When adding fish sauce, fish paste can be crumbled a bit, but no worry!
- Fish paste will be chewy again after being smeared again.
- Add 1 spoon of cooking oil into the mortar (to make fish soft when fried).
- Continue smearing.
- Total time for smearing should be 20 minutes to have delicious fish paste.
- You can mix all ingredients and smear in 10 minutes if you don't have much time.
- You can use a powder mixer (or food processor) to puree but it won't be as chewy as done by hand.
- When you're done with pureeing, fish is OK when it turns white.
- Store the fish paste in plastic bags, big or small as desired.
- Use a cutting board to press hard and push out evenly to 4 corners.
- It should be 1-1.2 cm thick to be good when fried.
- You can fry the whole piece, or cut into smaller pieces or shape in balls as desired.
- Or store separated parts in freezer to cook later.
- For me, I fry the whole piece of fish paste and cut into bite-size pieces.
- This dish is best served hot.
- Use with chili dipping sauce and rice.
- For kids, use salty fish sauce with ground black pepper instead.
- Or use chili garlic fish sauce to your liking.
bronze featherback, shallots, garlic, white stemed scallions, seasoning powder, fish sauce, black pepper, dill
Taken from cookpad.com/us/recipes/260267-vietnamese-bronze-featherback-fish-cake (may not work)