Three weeks ago, I was craving for fried fish balls.  If I were in the Philippines at that very moment, pleasing my palate could have been uncomplicated.  I only had to go to the nearest mall and choose one from the many fish ball stalls and my problem – addressed.  However, that wasn’t the case.

If there’s one important thing that living in Sweden has taught me,  it is to improve my cooking skills!  So far, so good.

That same day three weeks ago, I was determined to try frying some fish balls.  Bebe’s colleague went out fishing and shared his day’s catch with us.  No thinking twice,  I cleaned, filleted and boiled the fish.  I then mashed the boiled fillets, added flour, finely chopped onions, crushed garlic, water, salt, sugar, ground black pepper and cayenne pepper.  I mixed the batter and I was ready to fry my first ever homemade fish balls.

Fry fish balls, fry!

I was so eager to taste my little experiment so instead of spending time turning them into balls, I just scraped tiny amounts using a tablespoon and dropped them into the very hot oil.  It only took 30-45 seconds to fry each batch to perfection.  Quick, ‘eh?

To go with my plate of fish balls was a small bowl of sweet and sour sauce that I cooked while busy frying the balls.  Talk about multi-tasking!

Fried fishballs served with sweet and sour sauce.

I did not Google for recipes.  Instead, I trusted my gut and everything went fine… even better than expected.  The fish balls were a delight.  Crunchy on the outside.  Chewy on the inside.  The sauce --- perfect!

When you’re in another country or place and your taste buds crave for something that’s nowhere to be found, do you try and make the dish on your own or do you wait until the day you get back home?