Today I’m going to share a very popular dish from Singapore. A soup dish that can be found in our street food scene.
Fish Soup originates from Teochew, a city in China. Teochew or Chao Zhou, faces the Soup China Sea in the Southwest direction. Thus locals rely on the sea for food and livelihood.
This dish was brought forth by our forefathers when they came over to make a living.
While I’m not a Teochew, I (as a Chinese living in Southeast Asia) was brought up believing that fish gives us a lot of brain power. Thus while my mum doesn’t make this at home, we often have this dish when we dine outside at the hawker centre (street food centre)
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The Different Varietions
You can find different variations of this dish at our hawker scene, online and on recipe books. The base of it is the soup. With it you can have it with rice separately. Or you can add cooked rice in it and change it into porridge. Alternatively, you can add in different types of noodles to make it into Sliced Fish Noodles Soup.
Some people like it with clear soup, or some, enjoy a bowl of piping hot soup with some evporated milk. Either way, it is still very hearty and enjoyable for you.
Fish
As this dish is found in Southeast Asia, white fish is often the option. The soup is done in a quick boil manner in delectable soup base, therefore most hawkers will provide Spanish mackerel as it doesn’t break easily.
Other options that you can use at home include snapper or sea bass as they are cheaper choices. If you are feeling a little fancy, feel free to use the very prized Red Grouper or Chinese Pomfret.
You can purchase the entire fish and ask your local fish monger to remove the bones for you. This way, it’s more economical. Keep the bones, as we will be using it for the soup base. Nothing goes to waste.
If your fish monger provides slicing services, use it. If not, you can slice the fillet diagonally as doing so will prevent the fish from breaking too much during the cooking process.
The Soup Base
Perhaps not very well known to many, the soup base is actually made from both fish and chicken bones.
As this is a Teochew dish, most Teochews will add in fried sole fish or sole fish power to bring out the umami of the soup.
While using sole fish is very common in a lot of Teochew dishes such as the Bak Chor Mee, this is not common in other cuisine. Therefore it’s optional.
In this recipe, you can opt to use instant chicken stock to save time. Choose those in low sodium so that the soup is not overly salty.
The Toppings
The fish in this case is definitely the main character here. Other toppings which I put into mine are lettuce, seafood (laver), salted mustards and tomatoes. The toppings are not limited to these.
Some good toppings include soft tofu for extra protein. You can also add the following but are not limited to these
- Assorted Mushrooms
- Cabbage
- Fried Shallot
- Fried Garlic
Recipe
Teochew Fish Soup
Ingredients
- 1 piece White firm fish sliced
- 1 whole Fishbone chop into pieces
- 2 slices Ginger
- 3 cloves Garlic
- 1 bowl Dried Anchovies
- 1 TBSP Chicken Stock
- 1 piece Tomato
- 4-5 pieces Lettuce leaf
- 1/2 bowl Salted Vegetables/ Salted Mustard sliced and soaked in water
- 1 piece Chinese Laver/ Seaweed
- 1 TBSP Light Soy Sauce
- 1/2 TBSP Sesame Oil
- 1 TSP Sugar
- 1 TBSP Cooking Sake
- 1 dash White Pepper Powder
Instructions
Prepare the Soup Stock
- Clean out the fish bones of all the remnant blood to have a clear soup. Rinse the dried anchovies to remove any purities. Lightly smash the garlic with the knife and slice the ginger.
Marinate the Fish
- Gather the light soy, sesame oil, cooking sake, sugar and white pepper powder in a bowl and give them a good mix.
- Clean the fish fillet of any scales and blood. Slice the fish on the diagonal about 0.5cm thickness. Put the sliced fish into the marinade. Keep in the fridge for at least 30min to an hour.
Prepare the Rest of the Ingredients
- Wash the lettuce and set aside. Cut up the laver and set aside. Slice up the salted vegetables and soak in filtered water for 20min to remove excess salt. Cut the tomato into bite size wedges. Alternatively you can use cherry tomatoes if that what you have on hand.
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Do you like soup? What are your favourite soup? Share in the comment below.
If you enjoy the recipe, tag me @itsjust.jadie on Instagram to share with me. I would love to see your creation.