Fishball Soup

Breakfast

Chinese

Chinese New Year

Fish

Leafy

One-pot

Soup

Fishball soup is one of those dishes that looks simple, but demands patience and technique.

This is a family recipe Ili Sulaiman saw being made growing up by her Mama and EeMa, two Fuzhou women, smashing fish paste to a pulp using cleavers and scooping them into perfectly round balls in a pot of boiling salted water.

Whilst fish balls are easily found in grocery stores now, the secret to a truly good one lies in the freshly smashed tenggiri fish, salted water and light corn flour slurry – that’s what gives it its signature springy bite.

Serve this with soft bee hoon, blanched bok choy, fresh herbs and veggies, and a drizzle of sesame oil for a bowl that is comforting, clean and deeply nostalgic!

Ingredients

Steps

1

In a bowl add in corn flour, water and salt.

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2

Remove the skin off the tenggiri fish and start slicing the fish and chopping, then add corn flour slurry and continue to mash and chop the fish adding the slurry until you get a smooth and very sticky paste.

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3

In a large pot, add in water and bring to a boil then mold the paste in the palm of your hand and squeeze the paste in between your thumb and finger and using a spoon scoop the paste and drop into the pot of boiling water.

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4

Cook the fish balls until they float. oOnce the float, fish them out and place in a bowl of cool water to serve later.

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5

Once all the fish ball is cooked, scoop up any impurities from the top of the pot and add in ikan bilis to flavour the soup and blanch the bok choy for 3-4 minutes. Remove and set aside.

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