Whenever the Spring Festival comes, every household in Hengyang will be busy fishing for meatballs. As the saying goes, fish balls will be tasteless in the New Year, but with the improvement of people's living standards, most people choose to buy fish balls in the market, and this traditional method of making fish balls has been passed down to today, except for the post-70s and a few post-80s, or professional chefs. Today, Bian Xiao specially went to the host's house in a village in Hengyang to record the whole process of fishing ball.
First of all, the first step in making fish balls is to choose grass carp in Mudang, which is fed by farmers with more than 3 kilograms of grass.
Grass carp is scaled, cut into two halves, eviscerated, and the black film and fish oil on the fish cavity are scraped off.
Then the head, tail and bone spurs of the cut grass carp are removed, and the skin of the fish is peeled off, leaving pure fish and soaking it in clear water.
Remove the fish sticks and drain.
Then put into a blender and stirred twice to form paste for later use; Then add fresh pig fat in proportion and stir it into paste with a blender, just like fish pieces.
Besides pig fat, raw materials such as raw flour and egg white should be added, and condiments such as onion, Jiang Mo, pepper, monosodium glutamate and salt should be added. Especially eggs, as long as there is no yolk in the egg white, otherwise it will change color.
According to the ratio of 6 to 4, knead the fish with pig fat and other ingredients.
After several rubs, the fish balls are mushy but tough.
Making a single fish ball is also a technical job. The tool is a kitchen knife. Just three times, a fresh fish ball with two sharp ends and a thick middle is formed.
The finished fish balls must be steamed in a steamer. When steaming, the mastery of "temperature" is a key. The "temperature" is not enough and the steam is not ripe; If it takes too long, it will "age" and the fish balls will lose their white luster and umami taste.
Steamed fish balls should be spread out, cooled and air-dried; Steamed fish balls smell so good that I want to leave saliva when I smell them. Fish balls can be fried, stewed, fried, simmered and braised, and can also be made into hot pot.
In addition to the Spring Festival, Hengyang fish balls must be eaten locally, and weddings and funerals are indispensable in daily life. Usually fish balls are made into famous pottery bowls in Hengyang at banquets.