Hey Hive!
We're back with more of our home cooking! If you're unfamiliar with this series, it's where I showcase some of the food we've been making at home since we've been cooking a lot nowadays! Both because it's cheaper and also healthier to cook for yourself compared to eating out. While I usually stick to the usual recipes I do like to try new ones once in a while and figured I'd share the new ones I've tried.
This was a recipe I tried quite a while ago, but since there was a deal for frozen fish at the grocery store again, I thought of trying some different fish dishes! I wanted to try and make fish soup but all the recipes I found were quite complicated and called for quite a lot of ingredients that I didn't have, so I decided to adapt this fish congee recipe into a different kind of fish soup!
Don't get me wrong, I do like fish congee as well, but I usually reserve congee for when we're ill. We also had some extra egg tofu so I wanted to try and see if I could combine my egg tofu soup with fish and see how it goes!
So here are the ingredients that I used for the soup:
- egg tofu
- sutchi fish fillets
- shiitake mushrooms
- spinach
For the seasonings:
- oil
- soy sauce
- oyster sauce
- chicken stock cube
- corn starch
- white pepper
Instead of congee I made my usual rice with lots of vegetables:
- 3 cups of rice
- frozen broccoli
- shimeji mushrooms
- carrots
- spinach stems
Step 1: If you're using frozen fish like I am, then defrost the fish by wrapping it in a sealed plastic bag and submerge it under cold tap water.
Step 2: While the fish is defrosting, we wash the rice and chop up the vegetables if you like to add it into your rice like I do. It's an easy way to get more nutrients into your rice without needing to prepare a separate dish, and if you have leftovers, it's a perfect addition for fried rice!
Step 3: Prepare the marinade for the fish by mixing salt, white pepper, oyster sauce, soy sauce and some corn starch.
Step 4: Once the fish has defrosted, slice the fillets into bite-sized pieces.
Step 5: Marinade the fish with the sauce mixture and mix well, making sure every piece is fully covered in the sauce.
Step 6: While the fish is marinading, we can prepare the ingredients for the soup by slicing the shiitake mushrooms, cutting the spinach into smaller portions, and slicing the egg tofu.
Step 7: Boil the spinach and mushrooms in a pot of boiling water.
Once the veggies are soft enough, drain the pot and set it aside.
Step 8: In the same pot, drizzle some oil and slowly place the egg tofu slices. Fry them until they're slightly browned on both sides.
Step 9: Carefully place the fish slices into the pot and fry together with the tofu.
My fish pieces might've been a little small since they started to break up a little bit as I turned to fry them.
Once they're browned enough, take out the fish and tofu and set it aside. I thought they would be a little crispier but I think the marinade prevented the crisping. It's okay though since they're going to be in soup anyway.
Step 10: Boil another pot of water and pour the veggies and mushrooms back in, this time adding the chicken stock cube. Once it's boiled, add the fish and tofu back into the pot.
Depending on how thick you want your soup, you can add some corn starch to adjust the consistency. Add a drizzle of oyster sauce for some extra aroma and after simmering for a bit, the soup is done!
It doesn't look the best but it's super delicious and nutritious! It tastes savoury and flavourful and paired with the vegetable rice it was perfect. The fish was also nicely seasoned on its own thanks to the marinade. A nice hearty bowl of soup perfect for a rainy day. Sean liked it so much he finished two bowls in no time!
It's not really the fish soup that we know, but it was still a delicious meal nonetheless. Maybe next time I'll try to make the actual fish soup that we like to buy from hawker centres!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
