Mexican fishballs in tomato sauce
Masa harina has such a wonderful unique flavour that it's worth the effort to try and get hold of it. Most Mexican ingredient suppliers stock it.
| Mexican fishballs in tomato sauce | |
|---|---|
 |
| Servings: | Serves 2 |
| Ready in: | 1 hour 30 minutes |
| Prep. time: | 1 hour 15 minutes |
| Cook time: | 15 minutes |
| Difficulty: | 
|
Make this with any white fish, basa would be my choice as a flavoursome, economical and sustainable fish. Most supermarkets now stock it.
Ingredients
fishballs
Ingredients
Printable 🖨 shopping 🛒 list & 👩🍳 method for this recipe
- 250g basa fillets, roughly chopped
- 1 spring onion, roughly chopped
- About 200 ml of dried breadcrumbs or 2 slices of white bread, finely chopped
- 1 raw egg
- A big handful of chopped parsley
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
to coat
for frying
- 1 tablespoon of butter, 2 tablespoons of Olive oil
serve and garnish with
- Tabasco sauce or Louisiana hot pepper sauce
- Sliced roasted red peppers
- Sofrito or Tomato sauce for pizza. Most supermarkets sell good quality freshly pulped tomato sauce in bottles that would be fine for this.
- Finely chopped hard-boiled eggs
- Olives
- Freshly chopped parsley
Method
- Add all of the fishball ingredients into a food processor with a metal blade and blitz to a rough paste.
- Roll into small balls and leave to chill in the fridge for an hour or so
- Add a few tablespoons of masa harina to a large plate, only a little is needed so don't waste it as I did!
- Roll the balls in masa harina to coat.
- Heat the butter and oil in a large frying pan and shallow fry until browned and crispy on the outside
- Serve with tomato sauce and the garnishes of your choice.
Serving suggestions
For two people this was served with Mild Mexican passata, a portion of pasta for one (100g dried pasta]] and a chopped boiled egg. A very unique and very nice recipe!
Variations
If you can get then, fresh poblano chillies, roasted and sliced would go well with this as they fairly mild.
I have added a handful of finely chopped dried shrimp to the mixture. Not authentic, but adds a nice fishy touch to fishcakes and similar recipes.
When I made this I tinkered with the tomato sauce and came up with a separate recipe (if you can call it a recipe), Mild Mexican passata. It went really well with the fishballs as it had a slightly bitter, chocolatey note.
Chef's notes
If you can't get masa harina, coarsely ground yellow cornmeal would be ok, but it would not have the same distinct flavour.
When I made this, the paste was far too wet, so I added another handful of dried breadcrumbs, a little masa, remixed it and set it in a sieve for an hour to drain a little excess liquid. The result was still quite liquid, but the end result was excellent.