Pempek, Belgian version ;)

Pempek with pangasius dough

As a hardcore fan of pempek (or fishcake with sweet sour spicy soup), i always have attempt to make my own version of pempek whenever i'm abroad.

My first foreign-pempek was made in Erfurt, using potato starch and mackerel fish. It's nice in the beginning, moist dough and soft fish cake after it's fried. But turned out that it became really hard to bite as soon as it cooled down. FAIL :)) But the soup was nice although i had no gula jawa, and change it with palm sugar which was totally different. I had a clearer soup than a thick one.

My second attempt in making foreign-pempek was in Kitakyushu. I failed to find tapioca starch so i changed it with mochi flour and i used sawara (japanese mackerel) fish for the dough. It was too sticky and it was really difficult to fry because it never went crispy. I got black sugar which was made from sugar cane. It had different aroma with gula jawa but had similar thickness so the soup turned well. This time the fish cake was edible for longer time, but with a slight aroma of green bean in the dough :))

My third attempt was here in Leuven and it SUCCEED!!! *evil laugh*

Here goes the recipe:

Pempek/Fishcake dough:

900 gr pangasius fish (i know i use this fish a lot. this is the cheapest fish, i can't help it)

600 gr tapioca starch

5 cloves of garlic

salt 

Chop garlic and pangasius fillet. It would be easier if you use food processor. Make it soft and mix together well. Add tapioca starch little by little. Season with salt. Mix the dough thoroughly. Make balls from the dough. If you find the dough too sticky, add flour to your hand and shape your dough. Boil your dough until they float on the water surface. Take out from water, put aside.

Sweet-sour-spicy-soup:

300 gr of solid palm sugar. You can find it in Asian Store, some of them were made in Thailand.

2 stick of cayenne pepper. You can change it with cayenne powder.

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

3 spoonful vinegar

salt 

Blend together cayenne pepper and garlic in food processor. Chop palm sugar and boil it in 3/4 liter of water. Pour in pepper and garlic into the liquid right after palm sugar is fully diluted. Season with salt. Stir in vinegar and wait until the mixture boils. 

You can add chopped cucumber to your soup and enjoy it while it's warm.

Smakelijk eten!