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.
Make this with any white fish, basa would be my choice as a flavoursome, economical and sustainable fish. Most supermarkets now stock it.
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.
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