Sponsored by Vesteraalens
Early last month, I had the opportunity to work with Vesterlaarens, a 118-year-old brand that just entered the China market, to create quick and easy recipes for their fishballs.
They’re tasty and nutritious, and extremely convenient to prepare. And so, here they are—more recipes! Plus, keep reading for buy-one-get-one deals.
About Vesteraalens Fishballs
Established in 1912, Vesteraalens is a seafood and marine ingredients company located by one of the world’s richest fishing fields in northern Norway.
Their flagship product is canned fishballs, a staple in most Norwegian households for over a century. It’s made with fresh Norwegian arctic cod and haddock caught from the clean, cold Arctic seas around Vesterålen, Lofoten and Senja. For an idea of how pristine the environment is, just look at the photo below:
Being dependent on nature, the company is also committed to sustainable harvesting and uses everything from their catch to reduce waste, and provides parts they don’t use to other companies for byproducts like oils and collagen.
Vesteraalens delivers all their products under the certification requirements from MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) and FOS (Friends of the Sea).
The fishballs are nutritious, low in fat and cholesterol, rich in omega-3, DHA, and EPA. Plus, the fish are never frozen—caught fresh and shipped directly to the factory to process into fishballs. The only ingredients that go into the can are fish, fresh milk, clean water, NO-GMO potato starch, salt, and seasoning.
There are three variations, all made with the same ingredients: small circular fishballs for Kids (400g) and regular oblong-shaped fishballs (400g/800g), available on Tmall.
Thoughts: How Does It Taste Like?
These fishballs are unlike the ones you’d get from hawker stalls, y’know, the chewy, bouncy ones. These are softer, more tender and sweeter.
The question is: do you really need canned fishballs? You think you don’t, but when you do have them, it’s such a handy pantry item.
I think of it as a quick fix, really. Instead of other hyper-processed canned foods these fishballs are a healthier alternative for me to assemble a meal in 15 minutes. It’s worlds apart from other brands with questionable production and ingredients.
Sure, I could always buy a fish, gut it, fillet it and pan-sear carefully to make sure the skin doesn’t peel off. But opening a can, boiling a soup or pan-frying makes it hassle-free. Speaking of soup, the water in the can is also great for soup bases—don’t waste it!
For restaurants and chefs, it’s easy-to-prepare and doesn’t require defrosting. The benefit of this product is that it is applicable for both Asian and Western dishes—you can pan-fry them, batter and deep-fry, put it in soups, or serve it as a finger food.
Recipes with Vesteraalens Fishballs
Here are two quick and easy recipes—one Western and one Asian-inclined.
Fishball Paofan (Rice Soup)
I used the Kids can, which are small circular-shaped fishballs versus the regular oblong ones. This recipe is great for when you want to jazz up leftover rice. In this case, I’m using black rice. It’s basically a rice soup, and you can add in any kind of leafy greens. Great fixer upper that takes less than 20 minutes to prepare.
Ingredients:
1 can Vesteraalens (for kids) (400g)
Black rice (cooked)
100g leafy vegetables
½ large carrot (small cubes)
5-6 cherry tomatoes
3-4 mushrooms (thin slices)
Instructions:
- Open the can of Vesteraalens and strain out water into a pot. Remove fishballs and set aside in a bowl. Add in about 200ml of water.
- While the water is boiling, cut carrots into cubes, mushrooms into strips and roughly chop the green vegetables.
- Add the fishballs, carrots and mushrooms into the water and bring to a boil, turn heat down to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.
- Add in cherry tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in leafy vegetables. Add salt and pepper to taste, garnish with scallions.
- Serve with black rice.
Fried Fish Balls with Pumpkin Gratin & Green Herb Sauce
Again, another easy recipe, but with a green herb dressing. This is also a convenient recipe for restaurant operators.
Ingredients:
1 can Vesteraalens 400g
150g pumpkin
20g butter
Dressing Ingredients:
20g shallots (minced)
1 clove garlic (minced)
50g parsley
50g dill
50g spring onions
20g butter
5 tbsp olive oil
Dressing:
- Open the can of Vesteraalens and strain out water into a pot. Remove fishballs and set aside. Add equal parts water to stock to the pot and bring to a boil. Add in shallots and garlic and simmer until the stock is reduced by half. Turn off the fire and stir in butter. Let cool.
- Roughly chop parsley, dill and spring onions. Gently stir in to stock mixture (once cooled) and add salt and black pepper to taste. Add in olive oil.
Instructions:
- Skin pumpkin and steam (or roast). Once cooked, mash pumpkin, season with salt and pepper and set aside.
- Fry fishballs on medium to high heat until golden brown. Remove and strain fishballs on a kitchen tissues.
- In a large deep plate, add pumpkin mash and stud the mash with fishballs.
- Add 3-4 tablespoons of dressing and garnish with fresh herbs.
If you’re unable to finish an entire can in one sitting, you can freeze the uncooked fishballs (one-time only).
Nomfluence Readers Deal
The 400g cans retail at ¥79 each. But you can now get them buy-one-get-one free, plus you’ll get an additional ¥10 coupon when you shop via the link below. This deal is valid until November 10.
Copy & paste this link into Taobao to start shopping:
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For food & beverage operators interested in samples and distribution, please contact: Monica Fan, [email protected]
