My daily Burmese Cuisine: Fish cake on lemon grass

{ July 16, 2009 @ 9:34 am } · { Asian food, Burmese fish, Fish cake, Fish cake on lemon grass, Myanmar foods, Ngar Phal, Uncategorized }
{ Tags: Asian food, autentic Burmese foods, authentic Burmese cuisine, authentic Myanamar cuisine, authetic, burmese food, burmese foods, exotic asian food, exotic asian seafood, exotic food, masala mutton, mutton, mutton curry, Myanmar food, Myanmar foods, Ngar phal, spicy asian food, spicy food, thai fish cakes }

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It’s been a while since I updated my blog. I promise I will totally make it up to you. Good news is I have collected tons of Burmese recipes and other exotic Asian recipes for you (Of course, I didn’t stop cooking).  I developed a habit of taking the picture of the foods after I cooked. I had been cooking for some parties and I can’t wait to share it with you.

Fish cake on lemon grass stems

Are you a sea food lover? Or fresh water food? If you are, this recipe is satisfaction guaranteed! Just follow my instructions here.

Today, for all the good reason, I am gonna give away my top secret beloved recipe, which, by my experience, everyone loved.

So this is everyone’s favorite, the famous party snack ,fish cake on lemon grass. Typically, you can use fresh water fish. I use Ngar phal (ငါ: ဖယ္) the fresh water fish from Burma. It has a special quality, the stickiness, which helps to shape the fish paste into fish ball or round flat form without having to use the flour! Ngar phal is one of the popular fish in Burma and it is often served in traditional family meal or at ceremonies. Did I mention ceremonies? Oh, yes! We, Burmese, have a tradition to generously offer meals at monasteries for various types of ceremonies, may it be your child one year old naming party or a wedding held at monastery and other religious rituals as well. Ideally, meals include rice and a few main dishes, side dishes and soups. I will share with you Burmese traditions and culture in later posts.

Although this is not a common dish in Burma, I bet you would love it if you try it. Be it in your cocktail party or your afternoon snacks. Okie, enough with talking, let’s start.

All you need is          

Serves 6-7:

– ½ kg Ngar phal (you can use sea bass as well although the taste quality will be compromised)

– some lemon leaves, chopped into small pieces

– 7 or 8 stems of lemon grass, cut from half ( ideally,6 inches)

– 4 table spoons of fish sauce ( If you are using strong fish sauce, you can put 3 ½)

– ½ quarter small tea spoon of salt

– ½ quarter small tea spoon of sugar

– one big sheet of banana leaf

– 2 big garlic cloves, chopped

For sauce and garnishing:

-1 big lemon

-2 small red chili, chopped

-3 table spoon of fish sauce

– some coriander

If you are dealing with Ngar phal, it is very important not to defrost. Instead, put the fish in the newspaper and wrap it nicely and place it in the plastic bag. Put that plastic bag into the plate filled with water and leave it for 5 to 6 hours.

I know some of us pound Ngar phal to harden it. For my barbecue, I throw the fish meat to the hard surface several times to harden the meat. Before we do that, we can’t forget our marinating process too, of course. Put your salt, sugar, fish sauce, garlic, lemon leaves all together on the meat, mix them. You do not need to worry too much about the thoroughness. The throwing let the mixture all blended together and harden the surface. Throw the meat to your chopping board for about 5 or 6 times. During the process, you can add a little bit of water so that the meat won’t be sticky. 

So, we have our lemon grass stems cut in half. Get a spoonful of fish meat and put the paste around the stem and make oval shapes. Do 3 fish cakes in each stem. It is good to leave half an inch space in between fish cakes so that the fish meat won’t stick to each other. While you are busy with making fish meat balls, let your oven heated for 180 Degree Celsius. Place the banana leaf in the preheated oven and put all the fish cake stems together. Set your timer in the oven to 4 mins (max) and 180 Degree Celsius. Remember to turn the stems in half way as well. So, check it often and don’t let our precious fish meat burn in oven.

Prepare the sauce while baking the fish cake. Simply squash one big lemon and put the juice in a small bowl, add in fish sauce and chilli into the bowl.

Garnish the fish cake with coriander. You can serve the fish cakes on the stems on take off from the lemon grass stems and put them in the plates.

Done with cooking and trying? What would you say the taste is? ^_^  Divine, isn’t it?                                                                                             

fish cakes on the plate