Senegalese Fried Fish Balls
Senegalese cuisine has it‘s roots from it’s bordering West African countries as well as North Africa, Lebanon, France, and Portugal. Being on the western coastline, Senegalese eat a lot of fish as part of a dietary staple. Traditionally, emperor sea bream is used for the fish. Most likely you are going to have a hard time finding this fish, so tilapia, swai, cod, catfish, or any other firm white fleshed fish will work. The fish will need to be finely chopped in order to get the right consistency of the balls. You can do this with a sharp chefs knife or pulsed a couple of times in a food processor. Mix all of the ingredients together and let rest for 30 minutes before balling up. I like to use a cookie dropper to make uniform fish balls. Rolls the first ball in flour and fry for 4-5 minutes a side.For making the sauce, sauté onions, green bell peppers, and tomatoes down for 8-10 minutes. Add a cup of water and cayenne pepper(depending on how spicy you want the sauce) and simmer for 5 minutes. Add in the fish balls and simmer covered on low for 15 minutes. Serve the fish balls with steamed rice. Garnish with more chopped parsley.
Ingredients
Fried Fish Balls
- 1 lb white fish fillets (tilapia, swai, cod, catfish) finely chopped
- 4 slices bread ground into breadcrumbs
- 1 large egg
- 2 green onions finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 jalapeño finely chopped
- 1/4 cup parsley chopped
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 cup flour
- vegetable oil for frying
Sauce
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/2 medium onion finely chopped
- 1 green bell pepper chopped
- 3 roma tomatoes seeded and diced
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Mix together the minced fish, breadcrumbs, egg, jalapeño, garlic, parsle, green onion, salt, and pepper. Let the mix rest for a half an hour before using.
- Using a cookie dropper, scoop up a heap of the fish mix and roll into a ball.
- Roll each of the fish balls in flour.
- You should yield about 16 fish balls.
- Heat up 1” deep of cooking oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Add in the fish balls.
- Fry for 4-5 minutes a side until they are brown and crispy.
- Drain on paper towel.
- Heat up 2 tbsp of cooking oil in a large sauce pan over medium high heat. Add in the onions, green pepper, and tomatoes. Season with salt. Sauté for 8-10 minutes.
- Add in the water and cayenne pepper. Cover. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add in the fish balls. Cover. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 15 minutes.
- The sauce will thicken slightly. Add a little more water if you want a thinner sauce.
