I had a craving for fish soup. Not any iteration at the restaurants. I wanted my own. So I made that. Yes, I quite like my own fish soup; I'm persnickety like that. I don't like it too salty, and I like it hearty. I don't want it to taste of shitty fish, powdered stock and ginger. Ugh.
I didn't have time to meander to the wet market. The fastest option was the supermarkets. Great World City had CS Fresh and Meidi-ya, and Ryan's — the combo is always perfect for my needs. The supermarket had lovely Japanese madai head and bones on sale, as well as a slab of easy tai on half price too. Those would be seared to form the base of the soup, in addition to chicken back bones and pork ribs.
The shelves didn't offer madai fillets today. Only tai. Will do. There were plenty of ikan kurau as well. These would be the fish marinated and seared to preserve their tenderness instead of being boiled to death in the soup. I could also crisp the fish skin with all its collagen. The husband loves fish skin. That goes for kyabetsu and bok choi too. The carrots and vegetable stems go into the boil, but the leaves would remain simply blanched at the end. The daikon is popped in somewhere in between.
Choya likes fish too. And often, cooked fish is nice. I made two pots of soup. One small pot for Choya and a bigger one for us humans. This isn't exactly fish bone broth. I didn't cook it long enough to extract all the essence, but it's pretty nutritious broth. #ImpieCooks2025
I also got a pack of scallops and a pack of prawns. These would be seared in butter, drained, and then served atop the soup. It's umami too. The husband loves shellfish and never minds extra protein. Neither would the dog.
Seared the ikan kurau and tai for Choya, along with one scallop and one prawn. The fish and some skin would go into the little cubed trays to be frozen. I'm not fond of freezing shellfish too long. If it's just one scallop and a prawn, she can finish it over two meals. Yes I'm very conservative with her intake because the goal is NO MUSHY POOP.
For the humans, one pot of soup was boiled down to three generous bowls over three hours. It would be our dinner tonight, and one bowl left for the husband's sipping pleasure the next day. We had a ton of fish, and so much cabbage. That would do nicely to fill the stomach. Neither the husband or I felt like having rice or noodles with the soup.
The piping hot bowl of fish soup with all its gorgeous protein and omega-3 oils perfectly complemented the thunderstorm tonight. Husband was so thrilled with dinner. He loves soup lah, and can appreciate a superb bowl. Yup, I would totally and shamelessly say 'superb'. Mmmmmm.
No comments:
Post a Comment