Seafood noodle soup

This was a recent suppertime experiment, inspired by finding frozen fish balls in the Vietnamese supermarket in Greenwich. These were “lobster flavour”, never claiming to actually contain lobster. They looked like they had a firm texture with good “bite” which could create interesting contrast with al dente noodles, prawns and fish. 

The soup has east Asian influences, but I cannot vouch for any kind of authenticity, nor do I claim any. As I have already said the fish balls came from a Vietnamese supermarket, and I can tell you that the dried shrimp from a Japanese grocers and the fried onion and fried garlic from a Chinese supermarket. So I used a number of east Asian ingredients, but with no unifying cultural theme for the dish. 

The result was a comforting bowl of hot soup on a cold night, dotted with seafood, full of fragrance and flavour, which managed to be light. It was warming without being heavy, leaving a feeling of comfort without feeling overindulged. We enjoyed it and intend to make it again. I hope you will like it!

Seafood noodle soup

 

Ingredients

(Serves 2 for a generous main meal)

Noodles:

2 nests dried egg noodles

1 teaspoon groundnut oil

Seafood:

6 raw king prawns, cut in half along their length

1 fillet of fish (I used tilapia on this occasion), frozen

10 fish balls (I used lobster flavour fish balls), frozen

Soup:

800ml fish stock

4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

1” piece of ginger, peeled in cut into matchsticks

2 tbsp dried shrimps (I used the teeny tiny Japanese dried shrimp)

2 tablespoons crispy fried onions

1 tablespoon crispy fried garlic

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 tablespoon fish sauce

2 tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine

1 teaspoon Asian chicken bouillon (optional, or a quarter teaspoon of MSG, also optional)

1 head of pak choi cut into 2cm chunks, split up the green and the white bits

To serve:

1 teaspoon chilli oil

1 teaspoon pure sesame oil

2 spring onions finely sliced in rounds

1 tablespoon finely chopped coriander

Method

1. Cook the egg noodles according to the pack instructions. Drain, rinse with cold water and coat with the groundnut oil to prevent sticking. Work the oil through the noodles carefully, rather than add more oil, you don’t want the soup having an oil slick over the top.

2. Heat up your stock, or if using ready made, put your stock in a pan on a medium heat. Add the dried shrimp, Bouillon powder, Shaoxing, soy sauce, fish sauce, fried ginger, fried garlic, fresh ginger and fresh garlic. Let the flavours meld and ensure the stock is piping hot.

3. Add the fish balls for 5 minutes. Increase the heat if needed, as the frozen fish balls will bring down the temperature of the stock.

4. Then add the prawns, fish fillet and white parts of the pak choi and cook for another 2 minutes.

5. Add the green parts of the pak choi and cook for a further 2 minutes.

6. Get large bowls ready and split the cooked noodles among the bowls.

7. Serve the soup on top of the noodles.

8. Top with the coriander, spring onions, chilli oil and sesame oil.

9. Bring to the table with chopsticks, a ramen/noodle soup spoon and, if needed, a knife and fork.

Enjoy!