Gar Balls Recipe – Louisiana Gar Balls

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Louisiana gar balls is a simple, tasty recipe that works with most fish, not just gar. This is the best way to cook a very large gar, like an alligator gar.

The reason is because gar is a firm, lean fish anyway, and large gar develop sinews and connective tissue on par with land animals like deer or beef — stringy.

So the classic Cajun answer is to scrape the meat away from those sinews and make them into patties or gar balls.

You do not need to have gar to make gar balls. They are just another form of fish meatball, after all, and are delicious with any fish you have on hand.

Making Gar Balls

In a perfect world, you would run the gar meat through a meat grinder set with a fine die, like 4.5 mm. But you can make gar balls without a grinder.

The next best method is to roughly chop the fish and pulse it in a food processor until it’s well chopped, but not a paste.

Or, if you actually have meat from a large gar, you would scrape the meat away from the sinew, then chop that fine. That’s how I was taught to make gar balls.

Once you have ground or finely chopped fish, you mix that with the Cajun “trinity” of celery, green onion and green pepper — jalapeno in this case — eggs, breadcrumbs and Cajun seasoning.

Then you can either make a ton of Cajun gravy and cook the gar balls in that, or flour and fry them and then sauce the balls with the gravy; I do the latter.

Cajun Gravy

A great many variations on Cajun gravy exist, but this is a good one. Like most good gravies, this one starts with a roux. The “trinity” reappears, along with Cajun seasoning and Worcestershire sauce.

Brown stock works well here, like beef or venison stock, but a darker fish stock is also a good choice. Use chicken stock in a pinch.

Serving and Storing Gar Balls

Serve gar balls with white rice garnished with green onions or parsley. You could cut them in half and serve in a Louisiana po’boy sandwich, too.

If you want to make the balls ahead of time, make and fry them, then set aside. At this stage, you can keep gar balls in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze them.

To freeze, lay them out in one layer on a plate or tray and freeze, then put them in a heavy freezer bag. They’ll keep a few months that way.

Other Cajun Recipes

Gar balls would be a great appetizer for a Cajun feast. Serve them with something like:

If you liked this recipe, please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating and a comment below; I’d love to hear how everything went. If you’re on Instagram, share a picture and tag me at huntgathercook.

GAR BALLS

If you have a meat grinder, grind the fish through a fine die (4.5 mm). If not, dice the meat and pulse it in a food processor until it’s ground, but not a paste. Or, if you have indeed scraped the fish off the sinews of a large gar, mince that by hand.
Mix that with the green onions, parsley, celery, jalapeno, Cajun seasoning, breadcrumbs and eggs. Mix well so you can make balls out of it. If it’s too wet, add breadcrumbs. Too dry, add another egg. (It’s rarely too dry.)
Dust the balls in the fine cornmeal or flour and fry them in batches in 350°F oil until golden brown, turning them so they cook evenly. This will take about 4 to 6 minutes. Be sure to let the oil temperature return to 350 before frying the next batch.
Let them cool on a rack set over a baking sheet. At this point, you can refrigerate or freeze the gar balls for later.

GRAVY

Heat the butter in a medium pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the flour and cook this, stirring often, until the roux turns at least the color of peanut butter. I like to cook it until it’s the color of milk chocolate. This can take more than 15 minutes, depending on your heat.
Add the onions, green pepper and celery and cook this, stirring often, about 5 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic in the last couple minutes. Sprinkle on the Cajun seasoning.
Slowly pour in the stock, stirring constantly. Add some, incorporate it into the roux, then add more until you have a gravy with the consistency of melted ice cream. Add salt, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce to taste. Heat up the gar balls in this and serve over white rice.

If your Cajun seasoning doesn’t have salt in it (most do), add 2 teaspoons of salt to the gar balls.