How to make fish balls for hot pot! :)

[Musti]

Hi,

I'm trying to find on the Internet a way to make fish balls for hot pot but fail to find any recipe.

I'm living in Belgium and for some reason the city I'm living in has no Chinese store where u can buy many things that Can be used for hot pot. Dumplings I have found recipes but fish balls seem to be rather difficult. Could anyone help me out here??

[Kobo-Daishi]

A while back I got back into cooking Chinese and here's a nifty trick I use to find recipes. I was going to write it up for my blog, but, haven't got around to it.

It's Google's recipe search. I don't remember how I found it. It's not in their main search page or their "more" drop down menu or their "even more" web page.

Anyway, I've added the recipe search to the search input box of my browser. See my blog for instructions.

All you have to do is add "&tbm=rcp" for recipe searches for Google.

Fish balls go by 3 common names in Chinese, 魚丸, 魚圓, & 魚蛋.

https://www.google.c...num=100&tbm=rcp

https://www.google.c...num=100&tbm=rcp

https://www.google.c...num=100&tbm=rcp

https://www.google.c...num=100&tbm=rcp

https://www.google.c...num=100&tbm=rcp

For some unknown reason, 魚丸 returns only 3 hits and all Japanese in Google's recipe search.

One caveat, Google recipe search only returns sites that have a certain tag added to a web site to let them know that it's a recipe. I forgot what it was. You have to read through Google's instructions to find it.

https://www.google.c...um=100&tbm=isch

https://www.google.c...um=100&tbm=isch

https://www.google.c...um=100&tbm=isch

https://www.google.c...um=100&tbm=isch

https://www.google.c...um=100&tbm=isch

Here's another nifty tip. Better than the crap Google recipe search one.

If you're looking for recipes in Chinese, just use regular Google search and add 做法 jou faat.

You'll get a lot more recipes. Tons of them. Because not all the sites know to add the tags that Google's recipe search requires. So you'll find recipes in blog posts, dedicated cooking sites, regular web sites, etc.

https://www.google.c...q=魚丸 做法&num=100

https://www.google.c...q=魚圓 做法&num=100

https://www.google.c...q=魚蛋 做法&num=100

Or you could try The Dumpling Sisters. I think they've a recipe for making fish balls in their YouTube channel.

http://www.youtube.c...DumplingSisters

Kobo.

1. 
   

[Kobo-Daishi]

Kobo wrote:

Or you could try The Dumpling Sisters. I think they've a recipe for making fish balls in their YouTube channel.

My mistake.

It turns out it's sweet dumplings, made out of glutinous rice flour that the Chinese usually eat for Chinese New Years or the Spring Festival since spring falls on the beginning of the Chinese lunar calendar.

They've Tong Yuen so that's tang meaning "sugar" yuan and not tang meaning "soup". Or rou yuan, meat dumplings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_videos?more_url=&title=Recipes&index=2&video_ids=OoxE_CGB3wc%2CaT9ev-X370g%2C6alr8GC2DDA%2CM_kI7rCxKbE&feature=c4-overview&type=0

Kobo.

[skylee]

They've Tong Yuen so that's tang meaning "sugar" yuan and not tang meaning "soup".

I have not watched the video. But the "tong" in Tong Yuen does not mean sugar. It means soup. Tong Yuen is the Cantonese pronunciation of 湯丸 or 湯圓.

[Kobo-Daishi]

I have not watched the video. But the "tong" in Tong Yuen does not mean sugar. It means soup. Tong Yuen is the Cantonese pronunciation of 湯丸 or 湯圓.

Kobo's mistake again.

I also hadn't watched the video, but, saw the video title "Tong Yuen Sweet Dumplings". And just assumed that the Tong was for "sweet" using the character for sugar. Since the Dumplings don't use Chinese characters in their videos.

Kind of like how "diabetes" is written both "sweet urine disease" and "sugar urine disease" and "sweet and sour pork" is both "sweet sour pork"and "sugar vinegar pork". I thought sugar and sweet would be interchangeable in this case as well.

Kobo.

[Kobo-Daishi]

I'm living in Belgium and for some reason the city I'm living in has no Chinese store where u can buy many things that Can be used for hot pot.

Out here in the greater Los Angeles area, we've got Chinatown and then the Chinese 'burbs out in the San Gabriel Valley.

They've got fish balls freshly made, frozen ones in large bags and also ones vacuum sealed in plastic sheet.

There are also fish paste in little containers. The kind that cottage cheese and sour cream come in.

You could use the fish paste to make fish balls.

A lot more convenient than to clean (remove the head, tail, fins, viscera, scales, innards, etc.), fillet and mince your own fish for the balls.

Kobo.