Friday, October 9, 2009

PRAWN AND FISHBALL RICE VERMICELLI SOUP


Nothing like a good wholesome chicken stock to make a good soup with. So with 3 chicken carcasses that I roasted in the oven until they browned, 1 large onion, 1 head of garlic, a carrot and 2 celery stalks cut into chunks, some water and a large pot I came up with about 5 cups of lovely golden clear broth that was full of flavour.

Then I made this simple noodle soup the next day.


I might also mention that I made the fish balls too but since I avoided using lye water as one of the ingredients, because lye water is toxic, my fish balls, although full of flavour, were lacking in the bounce department. But it didn't matter to me as long as everything was homemade and safe. And good.


Making up the soup the next day was a breeze because there cannot be anything easier than making a clear noodle soup. It is simple, pure and refreshing yet so full of flavour.


The recipe...............for 2 or 3 persons.

Enough rice vermicelli for 2 or 3 people, soaked in just boiled water until softened and drained in a colander. Keep aside.

2 garlic cloves
2 spring onions, white part sliced
3 cups of good chicken stock, preferably homemade
6 or 7 large prawns
10 or 12 fishballs
some bak choy, washed and seperated
2 T cooking oil
a dash of soy sauce
salt and pepper

Heat up the oil in a medium pot. Saute the garlic and spring onions until fragrant and soft. Add the prawns and fish balls and stir to cook through. It will probably take about 2 to 3 minutes. Add in hot stock and bring the soup to a boil and then simmer . Add the bak choy and simmer only until the bak choy is a lovely bright green. Taste for seasoning and adjust if neccesary. Done.

Serve : Put a serving of the rice noodles in individual bowls and por the hot soup over it to cover the noodles. Top with prawns and fish balls and a few stalks of bak choy in each bowl.

11 comments:

TasteHongKong said...

This must be one of the elegant versions of fish ball vermicelli soup.

Anonymous said...

vermicelli is probably one of my favourite noodles of all time.
and so easy to prepare!
might have this for supper later :P

Ju (The Little Teochew) said...

Ah, Zu ... I love lunches like that. Simple and light, yet full of flavour and nutrition. I can't believe you made the fishballs yourself! Wow. Maybe a post on how to make them? I have heard of lye water, I just didn't know they were used in fishballs! No wonder my older relatives would oft tell me not to eat too many fishballs! BTW, how much more elegant can a bowl of beehoon soup look??? :)

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

I also like this way of meehoon soup, simple and nice, home cook always the best.

Faida said...

Yes,this is my kind of food. light and soupy. The best part is easy to prepare (once the stock is ready). Eating it with sweet soya souce mix with Sabah-bottled-chilly paste or pickled green chilly would be fantastic.BTW thanks for the info about the lye water in fishball.

terri@adailyobsession said...

this looks better than the restaurant's.
lye water is not needed to make fish balls bouncy if you get the right type of fish, such as spotted mackeral, 'yellow-tail chee' and yellow tail barracuda. if you don't use these fish, then lye water is needed.
pls search my blog for 'making fish balls' n i hope you succeed in making good fishballs/paste bc i don't make them as well as my maid:)

terri@adailyobsession said...

sorry, tt shd be 1) spotted mackeral 2) yellow tail barracuda, not chee! 3) 'tofu' fish, which has a yellow tail too. of the 3, 'tofu' fish makes the sweetest and smoothest fish paste, but it has lots of bones. spotted mac n yellow tail barracuda don't have much bones, but yellow tail barracuda is not easy to find and spotted mac can sometimes have an slight kerosene flavor to me.

Nadia said...

oooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh it's nice and cooler here now..this morning it was 50 F when we went out for the kids' 4H record books workshop....so this would have been so nice to come home for lunch to LOL...provided i'm not the one making it LOLOLOLOLOL....love the bowl! oh mummy, I bought some whimsical bowls the other day..i stared at them, held them put them back, then came back to that aisle LOL and thought 'should i should i not? they were on sale ...then i thought...argh! i should LOL..bec i really like whimsical bowls and the colors were just my kind of colors!!! so i got three...so far haven't used them yet lol

Zurin said...

TasteHongkong, TQ n TQ for dropping by :)

Felicia, my fave too :)

Ju, TQ, I will post the recipe as soon as I can get it a little more bouncy :))
you cld go to my kuay teow recipe post to read a little more about lye water. Its very toxic and dangerous to consume. that piece of info put me off a lot of commercially made things.. lol.

Sonia, yes its so good :)

Faida, yes it light and good. more suluk-like isn't it? :))

Terri, tq I've looked at your post and I'm definitely going to try it with themackeral. today perhaps. M looking forward to some bounce! :))

Juli, OOHHH show me show me the bowls. they must be beautiful :))

Hélène (Cannes) said...

What a lovely soup ! I love asian food ...
Thank you for your visit on my ... french ... blog ! If you need me to translate a recipe for you, don't hesitate a second and just ask, OK ? ;o) It will be a pleasure !
Have a nice day !
Hélène

Zurin said...

Helene, tq so much for the offer. I mite just take you up on that. U have some great recipes there :))

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