Pempek Goreng

Material:

• Spanish mackerel fillet; don't use the meat around the stomach as it is a bit too oily; don't use the red part (red meat near the fish bone)
• small red onion (cut into thick slice)
• salt, sugar, MSG (though i don't want to use it, it's a must!), white pepper powder
• cassava starch (tapioca flour)

How to make:

1. use a spoon to scratch the flesh (You'll get the flesh pulp). Put it in any kind of bowl.
2. as a comparison on the number of bowl of fish and water you need to mix: 1 bowl of fish pulp-1 bowl of water, 2 bowl of fish pulp-2 bowl of water, etc. Note: 1 bowl of water is not really full of water within the bowl, however just fill the bowl until reaching 80% of the bowl height.
3. mix them well using a potato masher. Note: if you just use a spoon, make sure you always mix it one way, either clock wise only or contra clock wise only.
4. liquidify sugar, salt, MSG with water before mixing them with the fish pulp.
5. add a little amount of white pepper powder and sliced red onion.
6. add tapioca flour approximatelly until the pulp becomes slighlty harder (the less the flour the better)
7. take the dough per spoon and fry them

For the condiment, mix the following ingredients in a bowl consecutively:

• bird's eye chilly - grounded coarsly
• garlic 1 clove - grounded fine with a little amout of salt
• a little amount of spiced cabbage pickle / dongcai (冬菜)
• rice vinegar
• coconut sugar - melted (coocked with a little water)
• if it isn't salty enough just add dark soy sauce
• filter the mixture to get a fine dark liquid as the condiment

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When my uncle taught me to make the condiment, there was no exact measurement on how much amount of each ingredients to use. However, the condiment tasted so great! So, trust your own tongue!!!