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Preparation
20 minutes
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Cooking
40 minutes
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Difficulty
Easy
If you are looking for a unique dish to change the family’s taste, TasteVN will show you how to make fragrant grilled fish wrapped in betel leaves, ensuring that everyone in the family will love it. Into the kitchen to make this fried dish right away!
Ingredients for Grilled Fish Wrapped in Betel Leaves For 3 people
Snakehead fish 300 gr Pork 200 gr (ground shoulder meat) Betel leaves 40 gr Shallots 3 bulbs Tapioca starch 1 teaspoon White wine a little Cooking oil a little Fish sauce 1 teaspoon Common seasonings a little (Salt/ ground pepper/ monosodium glutamate)
How to choose fresh and delicious ingredients
How to choose fresh snakehead fish
- For snakehead fish, you can choose any type of snakehead fish you prefer! However, you should prioritize choosing larger snakehead fish for easier filleting.
- To make the grilled fish wrapped in betel leaves tastier, you should prioritize buying fresh, live snakehead fish that are still swimming.
- If the fish is no longer alive, you should prioritize choosing fish with firm, shiny scales that are tightly attached to the fish’s body. Gently press with your hand; it should feel firm and elastic.
- Avoid choosing fish with peeling scales, soft flesh, or a foul smell, as these are signs that the fish has been stored for too long, and the flesh will be flaky and less sweet when eaten.
How to choose fresh and delicious pork
- Ideally, you should buy a piece of good pork and then grind it at home to ensure better quality!
- When choosing pork, first, a good piece of pork will have light pink lean meat, opaque white fat, a dry surface, and when pressed lightly, it will have elasticity.
- Do not choose pork that has a slimy surface, has dark bruises, or smells bad because this indicates that the pork has been kept for too long and has gone bad.
How to choose fresh and clean betel leaves
- First, when choosing betel leaves, you should select those that are dark green, large, thick, and not worm-eaten or torn.
- Avoid choosing leaves that are dark green or too stiff because these are old leaves, which will taste bitter and have thick veins, making them quite tough.
- Additionally, do not choose leaves that are too young as they often have less aroma, which will reduce the flavor of the dish.
Tools needed
Air fryer, meat grinder, knife, bowl, cutting board, spoon,…
How to prepare Fish Paste with Betel Leaves
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Prepare the ingredients
Clean the fish and then fillet it. To reduce the fishy smell of snakehead fish, we will soak the fish fillet in diluted salt water with a bit of white wine for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, rinse the fish again and let it drain.
Effective tips to remove the fishy smell- Method 1: Dissolve a little vinegar in diluted salt water, then soak the fish for 5 – 10 minutes, take it out, rinse it clean, and let it drain.
- Method 2: Alternatively, you can use a few slices of lemon or lemon juice to rub all over the fish’s surface. The acid in lemon will help eliminate the fishy smell.
See details: Effective tips to remove the fishy smell
Cut off the roots of red onion, peel, wash, and slice thinly. Remove old and damaged leaves from the betel leaves, wash them clean, and let them drain. Cut half of the betel leaves into small strips for the filling, and keep the rest to wrap the fish paste.
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Grinding the filling
After draining, cut the snakehead fish into small pieces and put them in a meat grinder, then add the betel leaves, sliced shallots along with 1 teaspoon of seasoning and 1 teaspoon of fish sauce.
Grind the fish filling mixture for about 5 – 7 minutes until the fish is finely ground.
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Marinating the filling
Add the ground snakehead fish mixture, ground meat, tapioca starch, and 1/2 teaspoon of ground pepper into a bowl. Use your hands to mix thoroughly so that the mixture blends well and absorbs the seasoning evenly. Let the filling mixture rest for about 10 minutes before wrapping.
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Grilled fish wrapped in betel leaves
Place the betel leaves on a plate or cutting board, fold the edges of the leaves on both sides, and then add the fish filling to roll them up like spring rolls. Roll until all the filling is used, then place the betel leaf fish rolls in the air fryer.
Brush a thin layer of oil on the surface of the betel leaf fish rolls; doing this will help prevent them from drying out while baking.
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Grilling betel leaf fish rolls in an air fryer
We will fry the fish rolls twice, the first time at a temperature of 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, we will flip the fish rolls and fry them at 180 degrees Celsius for another 5 minutes to ensure they cook evenly and have a better color.
Tip: If you don’t have an air fryer, you can fry the betel leaf fish rolls in a pan. Each side will fry for about 5 minutes over medium heat. If you want the outside to be crispier, you can fry each side for an additional 2 – 3 minutes!
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Finished Product
Serve the grilled fish wrapped in betel leaves on a plate, you can eat it rolled in rice paper or enjoy it with vermicelli, or even with plain rice, all are delicious.
The fish cake is moderately chewy and soft, and the betel leaves give it an incredibly aromatic scent. It’s so delicious that you shouldn’t miss it!
See more:
Above is the simple recipe for grilled fish wrapped in betel leaves using an air fryer that TasteVN wants to share with you. Hope that with the above recipe, you will successfully prepare this dish to treat your family!
