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I tried making fish balls to go into a Chankonabe like stew. The problem is, they dissolved into the stew. How can I make fish balls that won't dissolve?
I used a cup of yellow onion, a tablespoon of garlic, and about a pound of canned sardines (That had no extra salt and whose fillets were sitting in water). I also added some salt into the blend too.
I blended the mixture into a paste in a blender, and I added some water into it because it wasn't blending. I managed to make them into soft meatballs after absorbing the water with a lot of paper towels. Still, they broke apart.
My thinking is to use a non-blender food processor next time, or would baking the fish balls for a small time in the oven keep it from dissolving into the stew?
This is my first time making them. How would you have done it differently?
Getting my sardines fresh is out of the question sadly.
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Like any meatball, they need a binder. Use an egg, and probably start by regrinding crab sticks rather than sardines - sardines are oily af while crab sticks are the easiest way to find surimi, which is a lean blend. Skip the onion and maybe flavor with ginger.
Chicken is also more common these days than fish.
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>>9398423
>How would you have done it differently?
Add egg and cornstarch as a binder.
there's nothing wrong with the blender or food processor (they do that all the time on the old Iron chef show to make meatballs). You simply didn't add any binder. Add egg.
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>>9398470
Oh, and use a raw fish. Canned fish is already cooked. That makes it even worse for sticking together. You want the proteins in the mix to link together when you cook the balls. That won't happen as well if you start with canned fish. Find some fish you can get raw. I normally use catfish or tilapia for fishballs.
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Definitely don't add water. Just pulse the mix until it starts to form a paste. Might take a while, just be patient.
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>>9398423
>I managed to make them into soft meatballs after absorbing the water with a lot of paper towels.
Are you sure you drew out enough moisture? You may have just been drying out the very outer edge.
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>>9398423
Fish don't have balls, dum-dum; they have calacas, like birds.
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>>9398511
I doubt that's the issue. I've seen some very watery-looking pastes turn into perfectly firm meatballs. (watch the old Iron Chef show--the Japanese one that was dubbed on Food Network).
The problem is obviously the lack of any kind of raw protein to bind the balls together. OP used cooked fish and no egg. Major red flags there.
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>>9398466
I would use crab if I weren't allergic to it.
In my Chankonabe, I already have chicken and buffalo.
I did not add eggs to it though. Should just one egg work for the numbers I used above?
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>>9398548
One egg would be fine. I'd cut back on the amount of onion too.
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>>9398480
I guess I can also see what kind of fresh fish is on the market and make meatballs out of that.
Oh well, I'll be eating what I cooked anyways.
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>>9398551
Yeah, that leftover half onion was staring at me too long in the fridge and I had to do something with it.
Either way, thanks for the help!
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>>9398548
A fair amount of crabsticks have no actual crab/crab flavoring.
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>>9398581
Oh, you mean krab with a "k". Yeah, I can eat those just fine. Still, I'd rather have some honest to god fish if I can.
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