Fried Fish Dumplings (Batagor)

Batagor is an abbreviation of Bakso Tahu Goreng, Sundanese and Indonesia fried fish dumplings served with peanut sauce. This dish is very popular that you can find it anywhere, from street vendors, carts, to restaurants. This used to be one of my after school snacks back then.

However, batagor is considered a luxurious menu item in U.S. Not all Indonesian restaurants serve this – not sure why – and sadly not all of them are as good as the original. Since Frederick loves this so much, I decided to give it a try and make a bit mess in the kitchen. I got this recipe from another Indonesian food blogger who resides in Canada, so please say hi to Pepy. I’ve been reading her blog for such a long time and drooling over her beautiful pictures.

Ingredients:

• 500 g featherback fish (ikan belida) paste -> can be substituted for other white fish or shrimp or chicken
• 2 tsbp shallots, grated
• 1 tbsp mashed roasted garlic
• 2 tsp ground white pepper
• 2 tsp ground dried shrimp (ebi tumbuk)
• 1 tsp fish sauce -> my idea
• 2½ tsp sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsbp sesame oil
• 3 eggs
• 400 g chayotte or jicama, shredded and drain
• 250 g tapioca starch
• wonton skins
• tofu or tofu puffs
• peanut sambal
• cucumber acar (cucumber pickle)

Directions:

1. In a big bowl, combine fish paste with shallot, garlic, white pepper, dried shrimp, fish sauce, sugar, salt and sesame seed oil. Then add egg and mix well.
2. Add chayotte or jicama, mix well. Add tapioca starch and mix well again. Set aside.
3. Divide fish paste filling mixture into 3 parts. One for fried siomay (shu mai), one for tofu and another one for fishball.
4. Tofu/Tofu Puffs: Halve tofus into triangle shape. Use a spoon (a grapefruit spoon works great here) to remove the tofu from the middle of each triangle. Be careful to keep the pouch intact. Combine the tofu parts that you take out of the middle with a part of filling.
5. With a tablespoon, scoop the filling and gently stuff in each piece of tofu. Do this step until all tofus are used up. Deep fry to golden brown.
6. However, you will need to make changing if you use tofu puffs. All you need to do is cutting the puffs halved. Then fill with a teaspoon of fish paste mixture. Steam to them to cook the filling then fry.
7. Siomay: Lay a wonton skin on a flat surface. Brush the edges of skin with a little water. Place 1 teaspoon of filling into skin, being careful to avoid the edges. Fold and unify the edges together to seal. Repeat the same step until the filling is used up. Deep fry to golden brown.
8. Fishball: With two spoons, make a ball of 1 tablespoon mixture. Drop into a fryer to cook it. Repeat the same step until the filling is used up. I myself like to drop the balls into a 90C hot water to cook the inside until the balls floating. Drain then fry them to golden brown.
9. Serving:  plate siomay, filled tofu and fishball. Pour peanut sambal over. Drizzle kecap manis and ketchup over.  Add acar and chili sambal (only if you feel the peanut sambal is not hot enough) on the side.

Recipe courtesy of Indonesia Eats.

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