noodle soup

 

Fish Sliced Bee Hoon Soup

If there is such a thing as comfort food, then mine would be fish sliced bee hoon soup with thick white bee hoon. Here’s a recipe for fish sliced bee hoon soup that I think will rock your socks off. This is why I think this recipe so totally rock. This is a recipe that’s been tweaked to my liking.

* please note that I have included amazon affiliate links to the products I use, so check them out if you wish to support me, and if I can get these items from NTUC Supermarket, I would just indicate.

Fish slices (fried):

Ingredients:

Fish *Use Angoli* 500g (Angoli is Hokkien for Sea Bream and not to be confused with Red Snapper which is known as Ang Kway in Hokkien which literally means Red Chicken, don’t ask me why)

Sea salt (alternatively, you could consider what I use instead, which is the TADKA brand Himalayan Pink Salt [NTUC])

Chicken Stock Powder (I use Knorr Chicken Stock [NTUC] most of the time for this as it’s really the best, mum uses it for her cooking, and I use it as well)

Egg (one)

Potato starch (any brand will do, even the house brand from NTUC)

Shao Xing Hua Tiao Jiu (there are many varieties and brands that you can find at NTUC, but the brand that I like best is the Pagoda Hua Tiao Chiew, it’s the most expensive bottle with similar looking bottle branding)

White pepper

Method:

1. Cut the Angoli into thin slices about 1cm thick and then salt lightly, leave it to marinate for about 30 minutes. If you don’t like your fish to be too salty, you can wash it after marination.

2. Then prepare 5 tablespoons of potato starch *use measuring spoons* and crack an egg into it. Put half a teaspoon of chicken stock and half a capful of hua tiao jiu, white pepper and then whisk with a fork into a smooth creamy mixture.

3. Then dip the fish slices into the mixture and deep fry it over low heat, this is to ensure that the fish is cooked while the batter doesn’t burn – you want the fish slices to taste cripsy, not rock solid. Also not having a big fire ensures even cooking.

4. Fry till light brown *not too long* as fish cook easily, the texture should be just right, and the fish is not cooked too long. The taste should be soft and juicy and the batter gives it a nice crunchy texture.

Fish Soup:

Ingredients:

Sea salt (you can omit this and use chicken stock only)

Salted vegetables (Kiam Chye)

Sour plum (preserved salted sour plums)

Carnation milk (if you like)

Tomatoes (quartered)

Spring onions (cut into 2cm lengths)

Ginger (thinly sliced)

 

Method:

1. Bring about 1.5 litres of water to the boil, and add either 1 teaspoon of salt or chicken stock. I use salt instead because I am using salted vegetables for flavouring already, you can use chicken stock if you’re not adding salted vegetables an alternative vegetable is szechuan vegetables as it adds a different taste to it.

2. Bring the water to boil, then add the salted vegetables, sliced ginger and sour plum to flavour the soup (if you like you may also wanna add 4-5 whole garlic). Only add the tomatoes, spring onions last as they cook very quickly.

3. For the bee hoon, I use laksa bee hoon from NTUC and one packet feeds about 4 people easily. Boil the noodles first and then add it to the soup. The trick is to prepare everything ready and then adding it together to make the dish.

Serving Suggestion:

You can either add the fish into the soup when you prepare the noodles or not. It’s up to you. I prefer not so that I can taste the crispiness of the fish slices.

As an alternative, you can add chye sim, although I prefer to add thinly sliced bitter gourd to give it that extra taste.

That’s it, perfect!

Bon Appetit!

Usually I would end here with “Bon Appetit!”, but there is a YouTube video with my look-alike Adrian Pang and the very lovely Michelle Chia, and incidentally they are both promoting Sliced Fish Bee Hoon, so what the heck: