Had traditional fish head steamboat recently with the family at a zhi char stall and thought I wanted to replicate something similar but on a smaller scale. And although yam is commonly used in fish head steamboat, I decided to give it a little twist by using pumpkin instead. The sweetness from the pumpkin gives the soup a very refreshing taste indeed. Using fish bones, the soup base was simmered for a good 3 hours before using it to cook the soup. The excess soup stock was portioned into individual servings and freeze for future use which is really convenient.
The pictures probably don’t justify the dish much this time as I was in a rush to finish the photography and indulge in the meal after the extensive time taken to cook the soup base. But I must say the soup was really good, so good that I actually finished every single drop of it.
As you can see from my IG feed, I have always been a fan of fish soup. And if you have been working long enough in the CBD area, you would also realise that fish soups probably call for the longest queue amongst all other foods everyday during lunch. It’s healthy and delicious and most importantly, not fattening ! LOL.
So sharing this Pumpkin & Grouper Fish Soup here and hope you will like it too. You can also replace the fish with any kinds of sliced fish you desire. And since it’s the first day of December 2019 today, hope everyone will have an awesome time enjoying the last month of the year too !
Pumpkin and Grouper Fish Soup 金瓜鱼片煲
Course: MainCuisine: ChineseDifficulty: Easy2
servings3
hours15
minutesIngredients
450ml fish stock (cooked using fish bones, ginger slices, carrots chunks and white parts of spring onion)
4-5 thick slices of fish (marinate with 1 tsp ginger juice, 1 tsp shaoxing wine, 1/2 tsp sesame oil and pinch of salt, sugar and pepper)
50g pumpkin, cut into chunks
5 pcs thinly sliced ginger
Some green vegetables
Some cooking oil
1 tsp dried sole fish powder (Refer to here on how to prepare this)
Salt and pepper to taste
Some fried ikan bilis (as toppings)
Directions
- Make fish stock by cooking all the fish stock ingredients and simmer for 3 hours. Filter and drain away impurities to obtain the clear soup.
- Heat up some oil and blanch the pumpkin chunks in the hot oil.
- Remove pumpkin and set aside on some paper towels to remove excess oil.
- In a small pot, heat up 1 tsp oil and add in ginger slices.
- Add in fish stock and pumpkin.
- And salt and pepper to taste.
- Add in fish slices.
- Add in green vegetables.
- Cook till soup boils and stir in dried sole fish powder.
- Off flame and topped with some fried ikan bilis if desired and enjoy !
