Fish Slice & Bitter Gourd Porridge

In Singapore do you know where to eat the best fish soup or fish porridge? I believe for those who loves fish soup, you must have tried those stalls located at Amoy Street (厦门街) food centre, level 2 such as "Piao Ji Fish Porridge - 標記鱼粥" and "Han Kee Fish Porridge - 漢記鱼粥". But have you thought of cooking your very own version of Fish Soup with your desire ingredients. Today let's take a look on how easy we can prepared a homecook fish soup within 30 minutes by using some bitter gourd and fresh fish slices to cook teochew style fish porridge.

Bitter gourd clearing and refreshing which helps nourishing Qi, kidney and spleen, liver and improve eyesight effectiveness. It also has certain treatment effect on sores, heat stroke, fever, and other diseases. On the other hand, bitter gourd has high content of vitamin C, with prevention of scurvy, protect cell membrane and prevent atherosclerosis, improve stress ability such as the role to protect the heart. You can even use this as beauty products to achieve fairer skin with its moisture, calm and moisturizing the skin, especially in hot summer, apply it icy cold bitter gourd slices on the face can immediately lift the skin irritation.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
250g of Fresh Fish Slices
100g of Bitter Gourd, cut into thin slices
2 rice bowl of cooked rice
1 Tomato, cut into wedge
2 stalks of Spring Onion, cut into section
2 slices of Ginger
4 Stalks of Lettuce
800ml Water
Salt or Chicken cube for seasonings
Chopped Spring Onion and Parsley, garnish
Dry Shallot and Shallot Oil

Tips:

• You can use any kind of fish slices that are suitable for making soup such as: sheng yu, grouper, red snapper, mackerel and etc.
• If you buying the fish in the wet market you can also seek advice from the stall helper to get some good choice.
• f you are hesitated to eat bitter gourd due to it taste, you can rubbed some salt on the cut slices give is some squeeze, rinse it in water so as to reduce the bitterness taste.

From the steps below, you will notice that this is a very simple and nutritious soup which can be easily done in less than 30 minutes. And if you have time, you can prepared a pot of fish stock using fish bone and anchovies as main ingredients which will gives the stock an even more flavorful taste.

Method:
1. Prepared all the ingredients, preheat the soup pot with 1 teaspoon of oil, add spring onions and ginger and saute it until fragrant then add in bitter gourd and continue to fry for another 10 seconds, pour in 800ml of water.
2. Bring the mixture to boil again, add in fish slices and tomato cook for another 1 minute on medium high heat.
3. Turn off the heat, season with salt to taste.
4. Place each bowl of rice in a big soup bowl, scoop the hot soup mixture over the rice.
5. To serve garnish with some spring onion, coriander, shallot oil for extra flavour.

But if you prefer to have the soup and rice separately like normal fish soup with rice, you can always go ahead without adding the rice into the soup. For more information if you wish to read the Chinese version of the fish soup recipe, please click here. (Click HERE for recipe)

Choy Sum And Salted Egg Soup

Hot and humid weather is always great to have a bowl of soup for dinner which will cool down and replenish the body with extra fluid. This soup can be eaten together with steam rice or you can add in been hoon or noodle to turn it into a one-pot dish.

This is a very quick soup where you can get everything done within 15 minutes or less and Choy Sum has an excellent source of vitamin C and fiber too. With more flexibility, you can replace the minced pork with fresh prawn, fish or pork slices that you have prepared ahead. And by switching the meat ingredients, you can served this with your favourite noodles or rice.

Ingredient: (serves 2)
1 Bunch of Choy Sum(菜心)
100g of Minced Pork
1 Salted Egg
2 Slices of Ginger
800ml Water
Salt to Taste

Method:
1. Rinse the choy sum and cut into long sections then soaked in water for a while to remove soil or dirt. Rinse well again and set aside.
2. Marinate the minced pork with some pepper, light soy sauce, sesame oil and cornflour. Stir well and leave it for a while.
3. Removed the soil of the salted egg, washed well and crack the shell to separate the yolk and white.
4. Slice or dice the yolk in a small bowl then keep the white for later use.
5. Heat up a pot with 1 teaspoon of oil, saute the ginger till fragrance then pour in water and bring it to boil.
6. When the water boil, add in the choy sum and minced pork and let it cooked for 30 seconds before adding the salted egg yolks and cook until done.
7. Turn off the heat and stir in the salted egg whites, keep stirring until the white set and season it with some extra salt to taste.

Pear And Sweet Corn Soup

Double-boiled pear soup is always one of my son favourite herbal drink, he will always pester me to cook pear soup for him whenever he sees "Pear" in the supermarket. And from my "Soup - Herbal Tea" list you can see two different version of sweet Pear soup.

But today instead of cooking pear dessert soup, I decided to try something different. I got this idea from my colleague whose mum is a very good Cantonese cooker as well as soup maker. I used to hear from her that one of her favourite soup that her mum always boil for her is this "Sweet Corn & Pear Soup". So after confirming with her roughly what are the ingredients used, I decided to give it a try.

Ingredients: (serves 4)
300g Pork Ribs
1 Sweet Corn, cut into section
1 Large Shingo Pear, cut into quarters
5g Sweet & Bitter Almond(南北杏)
1 Honey Date(金丝蜜枣)
5 Large Red Dates(红枣)
5g Wolfberries(枸杞)
1000 ml Water

Method:
1. Blanched the pork ribs in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain them thoroughly, then set aside.
2. Use a clean pot, bring 1000ml of water to boil, add in sweet corn, pear and the rest of the ingredients except Wolfberries.
3. When the soup comes to boil again, lower the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes or so until it is favourable to taste, add in the wolfberries and simmer for another 5 minutes or so.
4. You can serve it with rice or before meal.

Note:
~ Shingo pears are one of the popular export fruits. They have light golden brown peels, and taste very sweet and juicy yet have crunchy texture.



This is indeed a very delicious soup that is full of natural sweetness and fragrance that is infused by the sweet corn and pear and the rest of ingredients. This taste just as good as the sweet dessert version but if you don't prefer to mix something sweet to go with your meal. I will suggest that you can have this soup either before meal or after your meal.

Fish And Watercress Soup

Watercress is widely used in either Asian or Western cuisine. Mostly in Asian countries, we used it to boil soup with different ingredients like chicken or pork ribs. It sometime refer to as a cooling soup for heaty weather. Whereas in Western cuisine, Watercress is usually eaten raw or appears as a garnish, in salads or on sandwiches. This is a great vegetables that is loaded with iron, calcium, folic acid and vitamins A.

No matter which method you prefer to consumed this leafy vegetables. Today, I am going to share with you another way of cooking watercress soup with Fish instead of the common ingredients we used to add like "Chicken or Pork ribs". I am sure you will like this new way of preparing your usual watercress soup.

Ingredients: (serves 2 -4)
500g of Fish Fillet
1 Bunch of Watercress
2 Slices of Ginger
4 Red Dates
Some Wolfberries
800ml Water

Method:
1. Cut off the stem portion of the watercress, rinse it well and reserve it for the boiling soup.
2. As for the leaves portion, removed those wilted leaves, rinse a few times to get rid of the soild and dirts then set aside for later use.
3. Clean and cut the fish fillet into big portion, marinate it with some cornstarch and light soy sauce and set aside in the fridge.
4. Cut the tailbone into halves, fry it with 1/2 teaspoon of oil and ginger slices till fragrant.
5. Pour in water and sprinkle some salt, bring to boil together with the watercress stem and red dates, then lower the heat and continue to simmer for another 20 minutes.
6. When done, strained the soup, add in the watercress leaves and boil briefly.
7. Lastly add in the marinated fish fillet and wolfberries, cook until done.
8. Season with salt and pepper serve hot with rice.

Note:
~ I bought the tail portion of sea bass from the wet market, and I ask the fishmonger to separate the tailbone and fillet for me.
~ For this soup, try to get a bunch of young watercress because of the short cooking time.

I have tried cooking a few version of the watercress soup in this blog before and this is indeed a new taste that you might want to try it out. It is full of Nutrition by adding fish and vegetable in a one pot soup. And I am sure this will add to your collection of making a new watercress soup than the usual one.

Our Pre-Mother's Day Dinner

Tomorrow is 11 May 2008 is once a year Mother's Day so my little Darling Reyon insists that we will have these for dinner today to celebrate Mother's Day. Early in the morning, he asked me to go market and buy some fresh prawns to make his favourite Deep-fry Breaded Prawns and some other ingredients to make the ABC Pork Ribs Soup.


ABC Pork Ribs Soup consists of carrot, potato, corn and pork ribs. Reyon loves this soup because of it's natural sweetness and fragrant taste. I purposely boiled extra amount of this soup and use it as a base to cook it with rice so that the white rice will taste even nicer.

Ingredient:
500g Pork Ribs
2 Medium Potato, cut into big chunks
1 Medium Carrot, cut into thick slices
1 Sweet Corn, cut into section
2 Garlic Cloves, lightly smashed
3 Shallots(small red onion), thinly sliced

Methods:
1. Wash and trim the pork ribs then blanch it in boiling water for about 5 minutes, removed and rinse with water then set aside.
2. Use a soup pot, add about 1/2 tablespoon of oil and saute the shallot and garlic for about 2 minutes then add in the carrot, potato and pork ribs and continue to saute till fragrant on low heat for about 5 minutes.
3. Add in about 1 litre of water and bring it to boil then add in the corns.
4. Let it simmer for about 25 - 30 minutes then season it with salt if prefer.(i add in 1/4 of the chicken stock cube)

Notes:

a) I replace the water for cooking rice with the above soup stock to make the rice more fragrant.

This is another one of Reyon's favourite deep-fry food other than chicken wing and nuggets. He loves either traditional Tempura Prawn or this type of Breaded Prawns. He can eat either 3 or 4 of this prawns for his usual meal.

Ingredients:
6 - 8 Medium Size Prawn, shell and devein
3 Tablespoons of Corn Flour
1 Beaten Egg
5 Tablespoons Dry Breadcrumbs(might need more)
Oil For Deep-frying

Methods:
1. Remove the shell from the prawns and keep the tail portion, try to snip two cuts at the base of the prawn so that the prawn will not curl up when deep-fry.
2. Next dry the prawns with kitchen paper towel well so that it will not have any water for safer frying.
3. Coat the prawn with cornflour then deep in beaten egg then coat with breadcrumbs and back to beaten egg then breadcrumbs again then set aside. (you can refer to a similar example here as in cornfour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs)
4. Make sure that the oil is hot before you drop in the coated prawns. Fry a few prawns at a time to avoid over crowded.
5. Fry the prawns till golden brown at medium heat for about 2 - 3 minutes.
6. Drained them well on kitchen paper towel and serve hot so that they will be crispy and nice.

Notes:
a) Select those with hard shell and firm meat type.
b) Remember to dry the prawn really well so that you can achieve a more crispy texture while deep-frying.

Lastly, I want to wish all my blog pals and reader especially those who are already mummy, I sincerely Wish You a HAPPY MOTHER's DAY............

Trio Carrot & Fish Paste Meatball Soup

Saw this original recipe from one of the cookbook call "Local Taiwan Food, 台湾小吃". In the recipe, it used pork strip instead of pork mince to coat with the fish paste. And for the soup base, they only use red and white carrot instead of the trio carrot that I used.

The process of making the fish paste meatballs is rather easy, it's sort of like the "Fuzhou Fishball, 福州鱼丸" that we had here. As you can see from the picture, I used the cookie cutter to cut out leaves and carrot shape from the carrots slices to make the soup look more appearling so that my dear son will find it interesting.


Ingredients:
200g Pork Mince/Pork Fillet
200g Fish Paste, 鱼浆
1 Medium Red Carrot, 红萝卜
1 Medium White Radish, 白萝卜
1 Medium Green Radish,清萝卜
4 Red Dates,红枣
1/2 Tablespoon Gou Qizi,枸杞子
1/4 Chinese Cabbage,白菜
1.5 Litres Water
1 Teaspoon Salt
Some White Pepper
Some Dried Shallot and Oil

Methods:
1. Marinate the pork mince with 1/2 Tablespoon Soy Sauce, 1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil, 1 Teaspoon Cooking Wine, 1/2 Tablespoon Cornstarch and 1/4 Teaspoon White Pepper for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.
2. Wash and cut the carrots into small cubes or patterns that you prefer.
3. Wash the Chinese cabbage and cut into bite pieces.
4. Bring a pot with the 1.5 litres to boil, then add in the carrot pieces, red dates and gou qizi then bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes on low heat until carrot tender.
5. Roll the pork mince into small round shape then coat with the fish paste to form another round shape like the size of a fishball.(wet your hand with some water so that the fish paste won't stick to your hand)
6. Bring a small pot of water to boil, drop in the meatballs one at a time, and cook until all meatballs float up, dish and drained.
7. Bring the soup to boil again, add in the Chinese cabbage, simmer until tender then add in the meatballs and bring to boil again.
8. Season with salt and serve with some dried shallot and chopped spring onion.

Notes: If you are using pork fillet, just wash the pork, cut into thin strips then coat with fish paste and drop into the pot of boiling water and cooked until float then remove.

Fish & Century Egg Soup

The century egg, also known as preserved egg, thousand-year egg, thousand-year-old egg; or in Chinese call 皮蛋 or 松花蛋. It is a Chinese food made by preserving duck or chicken eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime and rice straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing.

For this soup, I add in extra ingredients such as mince meat, doufu and tomatoes to make it more complete dish. Century eggs, coupled with doufu are good for treating chapped lips. A small bowl of the soup a day can help to alleviate the symptoms of ulcers and dry mouth. This soup is also good for clearing up and moistening the body, resolving heatniness, cooling the body and relieving fatigue.


Ingredients:
300g Sheng Yu Fish Slices
1 Tomato
150g Pork Mince
1 Tube Plain Doufu
2 Century Eggs
2 Slices Of Ginger
Some Spring Onion, cut into sections
1.5 Litres Of Water
Some Coriander

Methods:
1. Marinate the pork mince with some pepper, soy sauce, cornflour, cooking wine and set in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
2. Wash the fish slices and lightly marinate it with some pepper and salt.
3. Add about 1/2 Tablespoons of Oil in a pot, add in ginger and spring onion and stir-fry till fragrant then add in the tomatoes and stir for a while.
4. Pour in the water and bring to boil, add in pork mine balls, doufu and century eggs and let it boil then simmer on low heat for about 10 - 15 minutes.
5. Before you serve, add in the fish slices and bring to boil for a few minutes until cooked through then sprinkler some chopped coriander leaves and season with salt to taste.

Fishball and Chinese Cabbage Soup

These few days, I am so tired and lazy to cook anything and I actually intends get some roast duck rice for today's dinner. But since it started to drizzle in the evening and it's quite troublesome to bring my kid along I decided to cook a simple vegetable soup to go with rice. So with whatever I can find in the freezer I come out with this all in one soup with "fishball, crabstick, tofu, minced pork and Chinese cabbage".

Detoxifies Soup

These days the weather is pretty bad with super hot and humid afternoon or rainy gloomy sky. So in order to keep healthy, I come up with a new weekly menu planner that includes at least 3 - 4 of these Detoxifies Soup in our dinner. In short, soup is like the rain after drought to keep your skin moist and radiant. Loofah (丝瓜) is rich in vitamins B and C; besides that it also helps to clear heat, detoxifies, promotes blood circulation and prevents skin aging too. Furthermore this soup also whitens the skin and improves wrinkles and prevents freckles.