With thanks to the folks at Mingfa, I got to churn out some delicious Fuzhou Fishballs and Sambal Shrimp Fishballs with Mee Tak Bak (Silver noodles) in soup and dry versions recently. Mingfa is our homegrown Fishballs noodles chain where you can find many of their stalls in our local hawker centres. And being established as it is, they even branched out selling their signature fishballs in supermarkets now. In case you are not sure what’s a Fuzhou fishball, it’s actually a fishball that contains minced meat fillings within. And recently you can also find the launch of their new product, being the Sambal Shrimp balls.
The Sambal Shrimp balls boost of a spicy and savory filling which will squint in your mouth, hence do eat them with caution especially when they are still piping hot !
Using a pre-cooked home based soup stock, the rest of the cooking is literally a breeze. With preserved vegetables 冬菜, garlic oil, salt, pepper and a twinge of shaoxing wine as light seasoning, the soup version is all good to go. And all this takes is a quick 15 minutes of cooking.
And if you prefer the dry version, you can make do with one that’s seeing the noodles tossed in a mixture of chili oil or sauce, tomato sauce, garlic or shallot oil, light soya sauce, sugar, pepper and a tablespoon or two of the soup. To some, an addition of a dash of black vinegar might be essential too. But I usually do not include that in as the pungent of vinegar isn’t exactly my favorite.
This might not exactly be the most authentic fishballs soup or dry recipe you’ve seen around but it’s definitely one of my home favorites to go. And all because it goes without MSG, I felt it’s way healthier and better. With the plus fact that the soup stock was churned entirely from my own kitchen, it makes the dish all the way more meaningful.
And if you are ever in need of some fishballs to complete this dish, you can jolly well find them from Mingfa which are also made available from selected Fairprice outlets at Tampines Mall / Sun Plaza / RIvervale Mall / Orchard Grand Court / Kallang Wave Mall and Fairprice online under “YumSing”.
Because their fishballs can be ideally frozen, hence you do need not worry about having to finish a huge pack of fishballs at one go too. Hope this local simplistic dish will appeal to you as much as I do !
Fishball Mee Tak Bak (Silver Needle Noodles) Soup & Dry
Course: MainCuisine: ChineseDifficulty: Easy1
servings10
minutes15
minutesIngredients
- For the Soup :
130g of mee tak bak (silver needle noodles)
Some beansprouts
Some cabbage/lettuce/green vegetables
600ml homecooked soup stock / 250ml stock + 350ml water if using store bought stock
1 tsp preserved vegetables 冬菜
1 tbsp of minced garlic
2 tsp garlic oil
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 tsp Shaoxing wine
Some fishballs
Some fish dumplings
Some cooking oil
- For the Dry Version (can be adjusted according to preferences)
1 tbsp chili oil / sauce
1 tsp tomato sauce
1 tsp light soya sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp garlic/shallot oil
Pinch of pepper
1-2 tbsp soup
Black vinegar (optional)
Directions
- Add enough oil to cover the minced garlic entirely. Microwave on high heat at 20 seconds interval at the beginning and narrow down to 10 seconds interval till the garlic turns golden brown. Drain the garlic on paper towels and set aside the garlic oil.
- Add the soup base in pot. Add the preserved vegetables.
- Add garlic oil that was set aside from Step 1.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Add fishballs.
- Add fish dumplings if using.
- Add vegetables.
- Finish off with shaoxing huatiao wine and off the flame.
- In another pot, cook the mee tak bak and drain.
- In same pot for cooking mee tak bak, cook the beansprouts and drain.
- If cooking dry version, combine all the ingredients for the sauce. Toss the mee tak bak with the dry sauce and serve with the rest of the ingredients.
- Add fried garlic to both soup and/or dry version and serve hot immediately.
