Crispy Fish Balls
Surrounded by Mediterranean, Eagean and Black Seas, it is no surprise that fish is one of the most popular dish in Turkey, especially at regions that are close to the coasts. In the Black Sea region, people even make desserts and pickles of fishes. I am not from Black Sea region but I just could not stop after preparing one dish for the Turkish food blog event last week.
The second fish recipe for the event is crispy fish balls. I came across with the recipe in the Mediterranean: food of the sun. These appetizers were easy to prepare. Including the marinade phase the total preparation time is about 45 minutes.
I served them with hot sauce, ketchup, lemon and mayonnaise. The fish balls were good with each one of them. I also recommend barbecue sauce for dipping.
When I mixed all the ingredients, I realized that the mixture was watery, so I added some flour and corn meal to the mixture. I made these balls twice. First time I used more corn meal so the balls were dry. The second time I used more flour than corn meal, and they were better than the first one. Here are the ingredients from the second time.
Ingredients:
1 egg
a pinch of saffron treads (optional)
2 garlic cloves
3 tbsp parsley (optional)
2 tbsp oregano
8 oz. fish steak
3 oz bread
1/2 cups of flour + 1/4 cups of flour for dusting
1/4 cups of cornmeal
1/2 tsp cummin
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
Oil for frying
1. Beat the egg with saffron and set aside for 5 minutes.
2. Put garlic and parsley in a food processor, and chop until they are mixed.
3. Add fish and bread, and process until well blended.
4. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and add the egg. Season the mixture with cummin, pepper, salt and oregano.
5. Add the flour and the corn meal to the mixture, and make a dough.
6. In a shallow dish put the flour for dusting. You can add seasoning to the flour if you want.
7. Shape the dough into balls. Put them into the dish and cover them with the flour by shaking the dish.
8. Heat the oil in a deep frying pan.
9. Fry the fish balls, in batches if necessary, until crsip and golden, shaking the pan to keep them moving.
10. Drain the oil on a paper towel.
Serve immidiately.
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