Eating Fishballs in Hong Kong

 

[This article was originally published in the International food magazine Zomppa before appearing in Cosmopolitan Currymania.]

Each passing day, I am learning more and more about the food culture in Hong Kong. Since I am learning basic Cantonese now, I can communicate more comfortably with the local fish mongers in the seafood markets in Hong Kong. For instance, I recently learnt from an old Chinese lady that garoupa or lung den fish and cuttlefish are the best for making Asian fishballs. Congee tastes awesome with a special kind of fish, called nai mang, and sha koon fish is one of the preferred ones for clear fish soups!

Chinese fishballs are made by pulverising the fish meat to a smooth consistency and turning the mixture into balls around two inches in diameter. The taste is unique and quite unlike the Western fishballs, these are low in fat.

Carp (lei) is a very popular fish in Hong Kong and the localites buy these in plenty also because the word “lei” also means abundance: so they believe that eating these would bring prosperity in their lives.

Visited Hong Kong and didn’t eat fishballs and meatballs? You missed on one of the most popular staples here!

 

Another localite suggested that one must try stewed and minced pork balls with brown sauce, traditionally cooked in a clay pot. There is a fancy name for this dish: “lion head” balls! These are cooked with Shanghai pak choi (bok choi) to create a flavour that lingers! Fuzhou fishballs are worth a mention here: made with eel on the exterior and a juicy pork meatball inside, it is a culinary experience in its own right!
 

Undoubtedly, fishballs and meatballs are very popular in Hong Kong. There are a number of variations found here. The meatballs, usually beef balls, are brownish balls in which minced meat is pounded together with other ingredients to produce balls which taste awesome in soups, noodles and stir-fries. Fishballs are among the most popular street foods in Hong Kong! These differ in colour, texture and shape. Even fish blocks are available here, which are often sold fried. Interesting variations in fishballs include lobster balls, cuttlefish balls, octopus balls, fish siu mai, etc. There are interesting colour variations too. The most interesting ones include those with alternate coloured and white stripes!

Beef balls and lobster balls sell like hot cakes in Hong Kong!

The beef ball soups sometimes carry a piece of fish maw in the centre, along with shark’s fin. There are also ready-to-eat curried fishball packs available here, which just need to be warmed and can be had with rice. A pack of fish or meatballs is quite reasonably priced, more so if you buy from local vendors in Hong Kong wet markets. Moreover, there are those sold at local fishball stalls as street food, in which the fishballs are either fried or smeared with a sauce and served stacked on bamboo skewers. The fishballs and meatballs also find their ways in traditional “hot pot” soups.

Asian fishball soup with flat rice noodles
 

Ingredients:

 

 



Asian cuttlefish balls: 12

Asian lobster balls: 12

Pak choi (or any other Chinese green vegetable): handful

Chinese brown mushrooms (chopped): 10

Broccoli florets: 8–10

Chopped spring onion greens: ¼ cup

Carrots (chopped): ½

Finely chopped garlic: 4 tbsp

Chinese onion (roughly chopped): ½ cup

Fish sauce (nam pla): 3 tbsp

Chicken broth: 7 cups

Warm water: 1 cup

Chicken powder: 1 tbsp

Mung bean sprouts: handful

Salt: according to taste

Crisp-fried garlic (store-bought): for garnishing

Boiled and drained flat rice noodles (to be boiled with little salt and oil)

Sesame oil: 1.5 tbsp

Boneless chicken cubes (marinated in 1 tbsp dark soy sauce): 1 cup

Method:

Heat the pan and add the sesame oil. When the oil smokes, add the onion and sauté for 2 min. Add the garlic and sauté again for 1 min.

Now add the chicken and sauté till the chicken is almost cooked. Add the first seven ingredients and sauté for five more minutes.

Now add the chicken broth, chicken powder mixed in warm water and the fish sauce. Let this simmer for 25 min. Add the salt now, if required.

To serve, add some noodles to a serving bowl and spoon some soup over it. Garnish with a little mung sprouts, chopped spring onion greens and fried garlic. Serve immediately.

Postor Bora (Crackling Poppy Seed Fritters)



Postor Bora (Crackling poppy seed fritters)



Gastronomically speaking, it is fun to be a Bengali! The daily meal of a Bengali (people who belong to West Bengal, India) is elaborate. Gone are the days when having rice with five or six bowls of different vegetarian and non-vegetarian curries, five kinds of fritters (called bhaja in Bengali), sweetened yogurt (mishti doi) and sweets in lunch is considered as a kind of status symbol. However, a modern Bengali still prefers to have atleast three kinds of accompaniments with rice as a part of the daily meal.

White poppy seeds

There is “magic” in plain Bengali food: once you eat, you’ll never forget the taste! There are certain dishes which are inevitable in a Bengali household: one being the “postor bora”, in which white poppy seeds are mixed with a little wheat flour, turmeric powder and salt (red chilli powder can also be added) and deep-fried in mustard oil to make these super-crisp fritters. Poppy seeds are also known as khus khus or posto in Indian language.

These fritters are a little tricky to make. You need to know the right amount of flour to be added to the poppy seeds: if the amount is more, the fritters would be soft from inside, which is undesirable. The texture should be a bit hard, both inside as well as outside. Experienced Bengali cooks say, if you bite into one, it should produce a crackling sound. So, I hope you got the idea: correct amounts of ingredients and relaxed frying are the watchwords for the perfectly crisp fritters.

The Vegan recipe discussed here is one of the heirloom recipes in Indian cuisine, passed over many generations in West Bengal (Kolkata), and relished as a starter for lunch or as a side-dish with plain red or moong lentils and rice. I learnt this from my mother-in-law, who is a great cook and I follow her cooking almost blindly. Thanks, mom, for passing me such an authentic recipe!

Postor Bora (Crackling Poppy Seed Fritters)

Ingredients:

White poppy seeds: 5 tbsp

Wheat flour: 3.5 tsp

Turmeric powder: ¼ tsp

Salt: ½ tsp (or according to taste)

Red chilli powder (optional): ½ tsp

Water: just enough to bind the ingredients

Mustard oil: for deep-frying

Method:

Combine the first five ingredients together with minimum amount of water. Adding even a liitle bit of extra water will ruin the crispiness. For those who are attempting this starter for the first time, it is a good idea to add water with a tablespoon to keep a tab on the thickness of the batter.

The batter should be thick

Heat the mustard oil till it smokes. Reduce the flame to medium and add the fritters or boras in small clusters, making sure to leave a little gap between each of them. After 3 min, reduce the flame to the lowest and continue to fry till the bottom part solidifies and becomes brownish. Occasionally, you may increase the flame a bit, but make sure to reduce it after around 2–3 min.

When the bottoms of the fritters are well-browned, flip over carefully and continue to fry over a low flame, till the fritters are browned over both the sides.

Remove on absorbent paper and serve immediately for extra crunch! These are served with rice and lentils.

Seven Daring Foods in Hong Kong

[This article was originally published in the international food magazine Zomppa.]

I think, labelling a certain foodstuff as “weird” or “strange” is not quite justified since something weird for someone is a delicacy for the other! The Chinese in Hong Kong value protein-rich food very much. So they make the best use of protein by utilising even parts like chicken feet, chicken cartilages, ox tail, pig uterus, duck tongue, etc. This is probably because they still remember the period in history when they were very poor. If you consider yourself a daring foodie, please read this and re-think!

Frog legs

If you visit Hong Kong wet markets, spotting a few dozens of live frogs in cages in the seafood section is a common phenomenon. Live frogs are supposed to taste somewhere in between that of a fish and the chicken. Frog meat comes cheap here and is one of the favorite snacks in the night markets here. Frog legs are usually stewed, stir-fried or made into congee. What might appear to be bizarre for some, is a delicacy here to try for the brave-hearted!

Chicken Feet

If you thought that chicken feet are merely a Halloween special for Hong Kong epicureans, think again. Available throughout the year and extremely popular here, you will find huge batches of them in every smooth-running meat shop in Hong Kong. Although the appearance of the chicken feet (commonly referred to as “phoenix talons”) may not be quite inviting, it is supposed to be indispensable in Chinese soups and dim sums. Alternately, it is cooked in a special way with the black bean sauce.

Thousand-Year-Old Eggs

This is an ancient Chinese way to preserve the eggs when they are in supply! Many shops or supermarkets sell special kinds of chicken, quail or duck eggs, called thousand-year-old eggs. Of course, these eggs are not 1000-year-old! The insides of these eggs turn into a jelly-like texture, owing to the heavy brining of the eggs and then treating them with a corrosive mixture of tea leaves, lime, salt, sand, clay and ash. These are then buried in this mixture for a period of about three to four months, when the shell of the egg turns brownish black and the yolk turns bluish green and give out a sharp, sulphurous smell.

The eggs are sliced and served as a side dish, or can be added in noodles, congee or tofu.

Blood Tofu

Commonly made by coagulating pig or duck's blood, these are simply cut into rectangular cakes. This tofu is distinguished for its odour. Usually served deep-fried, this serves as a popular street food, especially among the older generation, since this serves as a cheap source of protein and iron.

Bird’s Nest Soup

Bird’s Nest Soup is another health food and is much celebrated in Hong Kong. This soup is actually made with swiftlet’s (a type of bird) saliva and chicken broth. These birds make their nests by binding the twigs with their thick saliva, which is then harvested (when dry) to make a nourishing, gelatinous soup having a huge range of benefits for the body. Bird’s nest is extremely expensive and is believed to boost immunity and longevity!

Baby-Mice Wine

Bottles of clear liquid (resembling water) can be found stacked in any wet market, resembling closely to bottles of mineral water with Chinese labels. But, don’t mistake them as drinking water. This may be baby-mice wine, which is a traditional Chinese and Korean health booster.

Little mice which are just born, eyes still closed, are plunged into a bottle of rice wine. They are left to ferment for a few months, till one gets this wine, which is one of the much prized country-style wines in Hong Kong!

Turtle Jelly

Across Hong Kong, there are many tea shops, soup centres and some Chinese medicine shops which sell empty turtle shells as well as something called “turtle jelly”! The turtles are boiled for more than 10 hours, mixed with other herbs, yielding a consistency of a soupy jelly. Although this jelly doesn’t taste and sound like something which should tickle your tastebuds, but according to the traditional Chinese medicine, its medicinal properties are amazing. People in Hong Kong believe that this nutritious jelly is good for improving complexion and boosts immunity to the body system.

Hong Kong is quite known for its “daring” foods. There are a few countries like Hong Kong, which are so traditionally experimentative and bold in their eating habits!

Rogan Josh from Kashmir

Kashmiri rogan josh: a red, succulent mutton curry

Rogan Josh: Just like the biryani, this is another royal Indian dish, believed to be introduced in India by the Mughals. In Persian, the word “rogan josh” means something which is boiling, hot and red in colour. Rogan josh is a signature dish in Kashmiri (Wazwani) cuisine and probably, one of the finest meat dishes in India!

Kashmir takes its cuisine very seriously. In fact, I have heard many Kashmiris saying that they regard cooking as a form of art and it is almost like their second religion!

Rogan Josh: Nuances in the Making

The authentic Kashmiri cooks (called wazas) have perfected signature Kashmiri dishes, such as the rogan josh, with their skills and experience. For them, rogan josh is not just a dish, but an extension of their culinary skills in its epitome!

·        The oil to be used in making an authentic rogan josh is mustard oil. You can replace mustard oil with a mixture of plain oil and ghee in case mustard oil is not available.

·        Use the freshest and best-quality mutton (meat of a male goat) for this dish. The shank or the shoulder of a male goat have the most succulent meat and are preferred highly in many Indian mutton preparations. The size of the meat pieces should be medium (chopped roughly into two-inch-sized pieces), so that the flavours percolate down the meat very well. Mutton can be replaced with lamb meat. Please note that the meat is never marinated in the traditional rogan josh preparation.

·        Tomatoes should never be used to prepare rogan josh. The rich red colour is only attributed to the addition of an indispensable ingredient in this authentic Wazwani (Kashmiri) dish: Kashmiri red chilli powder, which imparts a gorgeous red colour and is mildly hot compared to other red chilli powder varieties. To reduce the hotness even further and to get the same, rich colour in your rogan josh, you can mix equal quantities of Kashmiri red chilli powder and paprika.

·        The Hindus of Kashmir do not use any onion or garlic in this dish, but use yogurt or curd, fennel powder and asafoetida to impart richness. For making the same curry, the Kashmiri Muslims, however, use onions and a special ingredient called maval/mawal, described next.

·        An ingredient called “rattan jyot/ratan jot or maval/mawal”, which is actually dried cockscomb flower, is traditionally added to the dish (for a deep red colour) at the end by boiling it with equal quantity of water. In addition, saffron dissolved in a little milk is added to give it a subtle enrichment in its flavour. But don’t worry if you don’t get these ingredients: your rogan josh will still taste very good without them.

A word about Indian chillies

Just like Mexican and Korean cuisines, Indian cuisine also involves extensive use of chillies. Interestingly, some kinds of chillies are not hot, but just add flavor and colour to a particular dish! Indian cooking is an exemplary of the use of chillies in varied ways to impart distinct tastes and colours. There are a number of dry red chilli (sookhi laal/lal mirch) varieties used in Indian cooking, the prominent ones being the Kashmiri red chillies, the “fake” Kashmiri red chillies ( called dubby), single reshampatti, double reshampatti, yellowish red chillies, byadgi, Goan small and pointed red chillies, Guntur red chillies and Nellore red chillies. The good news is that, rogan josh demands the use of Kashmiri red chilli powder, which is just mildly hot!

The traditional Kashmiri Muslim banquet: Wazwan

A feast just fit for kings, Wazwan is a grandiose of different kinds of meat preparations and delicacies (prepared traditionally by master chefs called waza). Comprising of almost 36 courses (salute to the royal Kashmiri appetite!), more than half of the Wazwan dishes are meat-based. Traditional Wazwan meal is generally served in group of four, where people sit together and eat from one huge plate! Wazwan, which involves hours of hard work, is an example of Kashmiri hospitality, in which the guest in the house is served the first with an array of delicacies!

A traditional Wazwani dinner at a Kashmiri household or restaurant involves cleaning the hands with warm water (in a traditional vessel) before anything else. The delicacies include popular names, such as tabak maaz, rogan josh and rista, along with an assortment of kebabs and vegetable preparations. Finally, another unparalleled meat dish called gushtaba is served, before moving on to the dessert. Phirni is the common dessert cooked here, with rice and milk as the main ingredients. Last but not the least, the Wazwan is never complete without a cup of warm kahwah tea!

In Kashmiri cuisine, the use of curd or unsweetened yogurt (dahi) is very common, as are asafoetida (hing), aniseed (saunf), Kashmiri red chillies, saffron, dry fruits, nuts and dry ginger (saunth)!

Rogan Josh

[Note: This recipe is an amalgamation of Hindu and Muslim ways of cooking traditional rogan josh. That is why, both onion and curd are used together. Also, I have replaced exotic ingredients, such as ratan jot, to make it compliant with the global palate.]

Ingredients:

Mutton of a young goat (cut into two-inch-sized pieces, along with bones): 1 kg

Garlic cloves (finely chopped): 4

Kashmiri chilli powder (available in Indian superstores): 2.5 tsp

Curd or unsweetened yogurt: ½ cup

Shallots (chopped): 250 g

Mustard oil or a 1:1 combination of any light oil (except olive oil and groundnut oil) and ghee: ¼ cup

Cloves: 4

Large, black cardamoms: 2

Green cardamoms: 5

Cinnamon: 1-inch stick

Bay leaf (dried): 1

Mace: 1 blade

Coriander powder: 1 tsp

Fennel powder: 1 tsp

Dry ginger powder: 1 tsp

Turmeric powder: ¼ tsp

Salt (according to taste): 1.5 tsp

Water: 4.5 cups

Warm milk: 4 tbsp

Saffron strands: 8

Garam masala powder: ½ tsp

Coriander leaves (chopped): to garnish

Method:

Boil the mutton along with the bones with the garlic, half the salt and water, till the mutton is half done. Remove from heat and strain the stock. Keep the boiled meat aside.

The mutton (non-marinated) is stewed with salt

Whisk the curd properly with 3 tbsp water and set aside.

Mix the saffron with warm milk and keep aside.

Fry the shallots in oil, till it is just light brown. Add cloves, bay leaf, cinnamon, cardamoms and the mace and fry for 1 min.

Frying the shallots properly (making it light brown only) is an important step

Add the coriander, ginger, fennel and turmeric powders dissolved in a little (around 5 tbsp) of the reserved mutton broth. Lower the heat and add the curd to this and stir continuously to avoid the curd getting lumpy (that is why, while whisking, water is always added to the curd).

After 5 min, add the boiled meat. Sauté for about 15 min, till the liquid almost evaporates and the sauce coats the mutton well. Add the remaining salt, garam masala powder and the mutton stock and stir thoroughly.

Rogan josh in process

Add the chilli powder, cover and boil for 15 more minutes, or till the mutton is soft, yet chewy and the gravy looks thick and creamy. Add the saffron-milk mixture and cook for 5 more minutes, stirring well.

Garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves and serve with pulav, steamed rice, roti or naan.