If you haven’t noticed yet, we love to eat shrimp, whether deep fried, stir fried, steamed, boiled, or mashed into a paste. What I love about the shrimp balls is that I can make a bunch and freeze them for later to put into soups or serve as a side.
In Chinese cooking, the way to make any sort of meatballs requires a lot of mixing to break down the protein so that they bind to themselves and create this bouncy and fluffy texture. So this technique works for beef, pork, fish, squid, and our favorite shrimp. Sounds kind of expensive to use shrimp to make meatballs but we have a few tricks to save money. First, buy smaller shrimp because we are chopping them up anyways. Second, we add a few fillers such as fish and pork fat to help bind the meat. If you buy shrimp balls at Asian grocery stores, instead of using other meats as fillers, they usually add a bunch of starches which is cheaper but the taste is also not as delicious.
Ingredients
- 1 lb shrimp – peeled and deveined
- 8 oz basa fillet *
- 4 oz fatty ground pork **
- ¼ cup sweet potato starch
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp tapioca starch
- 1 egg white
- 1 tsp salt
- sugar
- white pepper
- rice wine
- ¼ cup crushed ice
* you can use swai, basa, swordfish, halibut, cod, or any sort of white fish
** I think the best fatty ground pork is from pork belly – I grind my own using my Kitchenaid stand mixer’s grinder attachment.
Directions
Caveat for this recipe – it is not the traditional way of making shrimp balls. If you have a food processor or a stand mixer you can save a lot of effort. Traditionally, you are supposed to chop the shrimp and meats with a cleaver until completely minced and then beat vigorously with your hands until the proteins break down. I’ve heard that’s like 300 repetitions.
First, we cut up the fish into 1” chunks. Next, divide shrimp into 2 portions. We separate the shrimp into two portions because the first one will be mashed into a paste where the latter portion we actually want to save for texture. If you want more uniformity in the chunks of shrimp, chop the second portion of shrimp to the desired size. Put the first portion along with fish and ground pork into the food processor. Add all ingredients and blend until a fine paste. Add remaining shrimp and ice and pulse a few times until shrimp is incorporated but still chunky. Remove the paste and refrigerate for 15-30 minutes to allow the paste to firm up and flavors to impart.
Prepare a large bowl with ice water. We will be using this as a temporary ice water bath for our shrimp balls. Time to form the balls. Pro Tip: wear disposable gloves will help form the shrimp balls easier. Scoop up a large portion of shrimp paste into your palm, as you close your fist, try to guide the paste to flow out of the space between your thumb and index finger. Use a metal spoon and scoop out the shrimp ball from your hand and glide it into the water bath. If the shrimp ball falls apart in the water, then you didn’t mix the paste enough. The reason of using a water bath instead of putting them into a pot to cook is to help control cooking time and temperature. As making shrimp balls might take 5-10 minutes, by the time you finish the last ball, the first ball is ready to come out of the cooking water except you don’t know which one! So if we put everything in a water bath first, then we can cook all at the same time.
Boil a pot of water and then turn the heat down to the lowest setting because we are ‘poaching’ the shrimp balls and not boiling them. Transfer the shrimp balls from the water bath into the pot and let it cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove and drain the shrimp balls for later use. At this point, you can put them in a freezer bag and preserve in the freezer for about a month. If using in a soup, there is no need to thaw before putting it in. For best results, reheat the frozen shrimp ball at a simmer for about 5 minutes. Never boil the shrimp balls.
You can serve the shrimp balls with chicken stock and some spinach or as an appetizer or deep fried for a tasty snack.
- 1 lb shrimp - peeled and deveined
- 8 oz basa fillet *
- 4 oz fatty ground pork **
- ¼ cup sweet potato starch
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp tapioca starch
- 1 egg white
- 1 tsp salt
- sugar
- white pepper
- rice wine
- ¼ cup crushed ice
- Cut fish into 1” chunks
- Separate peeled and deveined shrimp into two portions
- Add one portion of shrimp to food processor along with fish, pork, and seasoning
- Blend until it is a fine paste
- Add remaining shrimp and ice and pulse a few times so the shrimp is in small chunks but not pulverized to a paste
- Remove the paste and refrigerate for 15-30 minutes to let the paste settle
- Prepare a bowl of ice water to place the shrimp ball
- Grab some paste in your palm
- Using the thumb and index to make a circle, close your hand to make a fist and guide the paste to flow out of the circle to make a ball
- Gently slide the shrimp ball into ice water - amazingly it doesn't fall apart!
- After finishing forming all the balls, time to “cook” them
- Boil a pot of water and turn the heat down to the lowest setting
- Transfer the shrimp balls over into the pot and let it cook for about 5 minutes
- Remove and let cool before storing
- They can freeze up to a month
- If you are serving immediately - cook for 5 extra minutes and serve as an appetizer or put into chicken stock as a soup.