If you’ve ever walked along the streets of Hong Kong smelling the delicious smells of street food stalls hawking everything from seafood, to noodles, to Hong Kong egg tarts, you’ve undoubtedly seen these Hong Kong-style Curry Fish Balls. Fish balls of all kinds bob around in metal steam-heated trays of deliciously rich yellow and red curry sauces.
…Unfortunatelyyy, I’ve never been one of those people. I’ve been meaning to make it out to Hong Kong for some time now, and now that we’ve criss-crossed mainland China, hopefully my turn to taste a delicious fresh curry fish ball in the middle of a Hong Kong street with people streaming past isn’t far off.
But my mother is one of those lucky people that has fond memories of eating fish ball skewers on the street and served as official taste tester.
One thing to note is that the curry sauce in this recipe is purposefully thick and delicious. More so than what you might find with the versions sold by crinkly old ladies in visors and plastic gloves. My philosophy is: you want a fish ball curry rather than a curried fish ball. You can even enjoy the sauce spooned over some white rice or plain noodles to go with these! But if you want a thinner sauce, you can omit the flour and the roux-making portion of the recipe.
Let’s start!
Hong Kong Curry Fish Balls: Recipe Instructions
Add two tablespoons of oil to a shallow pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the shallots until they start to caramelize.
Add the flour and stir thoroughly to combine, cooking for a minute or so.
Make a space in the center of the pan, and add the last tablespoon of oil and the Thai yellow curry paste. Fry until fragrant.
Next, add the chicken stock and stir thoroughly, breaking up the curry and the roux. Bring to a boil and let thicken.
Add the coconut milk, curry powder, soy sauce, white pepper and black pepper, the sugar…
And finally, the fish balls.
Simmer for 10 minutes until the curry sauce thickens and the fish balls are warmed through.
Serve your curry fish balls immediately in the pan or on skewers. You can also eat these with a bowl of plain rice or noodles!
Hong Kong Curry Fishballs
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil (divided)
- 5 shallots (minced)
- 1½ tablespoons flour
- 2 ounces Thai yellow curry paste (about 2 tablespoons, 57g)
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1/3 cup coconut milk
- 3 tablespoons curry powder
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- ⅛ teaspoon ground white pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 2 packs Asian fried fish balls
Instructions
- Add two tablespoons of oil to a shallow pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the shallots until they start to caramelize. Add the flour and stir thoroughly to combine, cooking for a minute or so. Make a space in the center of the pan, and add the last tablespoon of oil and the curry paste. Fry until fragrant.
- Next, add the chicken stock and stir thoroughly, breaking up the curry and the roux. Bring to a boil and let thicken. Add the coconut milk, curry powder, soy sauce, white and black peppers, the sugar, and finally, the fish balls.
- Simmer for 10 minutes until the curry sauce thickens and the fish balls are warmed through.
- Serve immediately in the pan or on skewers. You can also eat these with a bowl of plain rice or noodles!
nutrition facts
Tastes good, thanks so much!
Hey! Can’t wait to make this, I bought everything for it. Can you estimate the grams of weight for the serving of the fish balls? I got two packs, but they seem to be larger than the ones you show in your photo.
Hi Teddy, you should be fine, there are a lot of sauces in relation to the fish balls. You can also enjoy the leftover sauce with some cooked noodle or rice.
Is there a way to make homemade fish balls? Is there advice on which type of fish is best if I wanted to experiment and make them myself along with the sauce of this recipe? I do have an Asian market near my house but I’ve asked them a few times if they have them available and they’re always on back order. Making them on my own I think could be fun :) Thank you!
Hi Tiffany, we’ve not yet successfully made homemade fish balls! It’s definitely on our list to tackle though.
Thanks so much for the easy recipe. I made it today for the 1st time and was an instant success. Soooooo tasty!!!
Yaay! Thanks, Richard :)
Thank you so much for this recipe! This really brought back memories of my mom picking me up from grade school. On our way home she would purchase a serving of this from a street cart in New York City’s Chinatown. Then we’d share it on the train ride home. It was sort of our food, as I don’t remember my father having any, since he doesn’t like seafood.
I was a bit dubious as to how authentic this recipe would taste with the coconut milk and the shallots (I don’t remember shallots in the street cart curries), but this was SO good. Even my curry-averse husband had several servings. He thought there was tahini in it, it was kinda nutty and sweet. I thought it’d be spicy (from the smell), but it wasn’t, but then the one I used to have wasn’t spicy. I probably wouldn’t have liked it so much if it were. I’ll definitely be making this again, with squid next time!
I initially halved this because 60 fishballs between me and my husband seemed like overkill, but next time I’ll follow the full recipe for the sauce and just use one packet of fishballs. This roux can be used to sauce other meats, I was thinking, katsudon. I used Roland’s Madras Indian Curry Powder, Maesri’s Karee (or Yellow) Curry Paste, and a bag of Bobo Fried Fish Balls. A 16 oz or 455 gm bag contained 29 fish balls. I can vouch for these. Fish ball quality tends to vary at Chinese supermarkets. BTW the fish balls were frozen and I just tried to jam a bag’s worth- all stuck together- in the small pot of curry and I ended up splattering curry all over the stove. : ( So next time I’ll use a larger pot or defrost the fish balls a bit in the microwave first. Also, the fish balls expanded from cooking in the pot of curry. Thanks again for this recipe Kaitlin and Judy : )
Sorry we missed your comment! But thank you so much for sharing your experience with this dish! Love the tips on the brand of fish balls, too :)