Siakap Fish Kuew Teow Soup

Siakap Fish Kuew Teow Soup

   August 22, 2019       Lyn Alina

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I know how you weird and surprise you might feel when you heard the name of this dish.
It's completely come to no surprise if you hadn't come across the name of the dish before.
Normally, kuew teow soup is made of chicken, seafoods or beef.
This comfort food when prepared with those ingredients, added with anchovies, the taste of the soup is better enhanced too.
So, this version of kuew teow soup, cooked with siakap fish should be a kind that cannot be found elsewhere.

I have to admit that it was my first trial making kuew teow soup with siakap fish as the main condiment.
My original plan was to prepare siakap fish soup for our dinner last night.
While preparing to cook, my endless desire to create-and-modify dish and my way of cooking brought me to make something different that I've never made before.
It was the consequences of my super active right brain activity that constantly encourage my artistic creativity to be channeled through cooking.
It is not uncommon for me to suddenly change my cooking plan whenever my creativity is activated. 😉
This is how the dish is created.

In many restaurants exclusively serve Chinese or Penang cuisines that I've been before, one thing I noticed is that, most of their soup dishes, whether their wanton noodle soup, kuew teow soup or yong tau foo soup, they did not add in red onion.
Unlike the common Malay soup whereby the red onion is one of the important element that must be added.
It's totally a different variation of soup based dishes from what is common to us Malay.
I genuinely like the taste the soup, it's light and flavorful despite of limited ingredients being used.
Yep I know, one of the secret ingredient is of course no other than MSG!
But still, it's different kind of soup version that is a must for me to learn since I need to adapt my hubby's food culture in my cooking.

Before this, I had once made yong tau foo soup, and that was about 2 years ago.
For the broth, I saute large onion, ginger, crushed garlic (with skin on) and anchovies (ikan bilis), then I added water, salt and chicken stock, simmering the soup slowly to let all the flavors diffuse.
Then the soup is strained, removing the particles to obtain a clear soup for my yong tau foo.
You can also try this method, I think the taste is closed to the yong tau foo soup that we normally eat in restaurants.

But for my siakap fish kuew teow soup that I made yesterday, I was still using almost similar ingredients, but I added oyster sauce.
And guess what, it was absolutely delicious and perfect!
I was so happy with the outcome of my first trial and my hubby liked it very much!
This healthy, light dish is so comforting and satisfying and I 'll certainly be making the dish again.

So, if you like to adventure and expand your creativity and add variety in your cooking style, you can try this recipe out.
Instead of siakap fish, you may use red fish.
Please do not use mackerel and any other strong fishy smell fish.
I cannot guarantee it'll turned out to be as delicious as when you use siakap or red fish.

I didn't plan to make kuew teow soup with half of my frozen siakap fish, the leftover of making steam siakap fish the other day.
I fall short of fish cakes and bean sprouts, but thankfully, I bought a small packet of fish balls during our groceries shopping recently.
Another think I like about this version of kuew teow soup is it's easy to prepare.
Sometimes, the simplest food tends to be the most comforting one, isn't it?
And it's economical too!
So, after this, you don't have to head to the hawker or restaurant to get a share of this simple yet comforting dish from now on.

Lets go through the recipe.

SIAKAP FISH KUEW TEOW SOUP

Cuisine : Chinese

Course : Ala Carte

Serve : 4

INGREDIENTS:

2 tablespoons of cooking oil

2 garlic cloves - crushed

1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

1 1/2 liter water

1/2 chicken stock cube /1 tablespoon of chicken stock powder

1/2 anchovies stock cube / 1 tablespoon of anchovies stock powder

salt to taste

200 grams of siakap fish flesh - debone and cut into chunks

1/2 carrot - halved and sliced

1 tomato - cut into thin wedges

1 small packet of fish balls

1/2 small packet of fried fish balls - optional

2 to 3 sticks of fried fish cakes - thinly sliced

For Kuew Teow:

1 small packet (or about 400 -500 grams) of kuew teow

Water 

Salt

1 to 2 tablespoons of cooking oil

Condiments:

Bean sprouts - tails removed 

Chopped green onion

Fried garlic 

Spicy soy sauce - sliced bird eye chili add with light soy sauce

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. To prepare the kuew teow, in a pot, bring water to boil.  Add in oil and salt.  Once boil, blanch kuew teow until tender but al dente (about 2 minutes or less). Drain and transfer into individual serving bowl.
2. Heat cooking oil in a pot.  When hot, saute crushed garlic until brown.
3. Add in water, oyster sauce, chicken and anchovies stocks.  Bring to boil.
4. Add in sliced carrot, fish balls and fish cakes.  Let it simmer until carrot is soft. You can also remove the fish balls and fish cakes using slotted spoon once they float to the surface and place in the serving bowl.
5. Lastly add in siakap fish chunks and tomato wedges and cook until the fish is no longer translucent (it shouldn't takes longer than 10 minutes).

To Serve:

Together with the blanched kuew teow, fish balls and fish cake slices in the bowl to serve, sprinkle bean sprout and pour in soup.  Garnish with fried garlic and chopped green onion.  

Serve hot immediately.

If you like to add spiciness in your siakap fish kuew teow soup, enjoy it with spicy soy sauce.

#NOTE#

If you like to prepare your own chicken broth, instead of using ready made chicken stock like me, you can simmer chicken carcass with chicken feet in a large pot of water for a painstaking 10 hours or more on the gas stove until the chicken bone disintegrate and the color of the broth turns milky.

Keep the chicken broth lefover in a container and keep it frozen for future use.