Easy Fish Slice Noodles with Rice Vermicelli

A simple, healthy and hearty dinner for me and my son as hubby was out of town for work. 



Fish slice noodles is one of our family favourite - we often have it during weekends for lunch. When hubby goes outstation for work, I would not cook rice and dishes but just a simple one-pot meal for my son and myself.  This is also one of those meals that I know my son would happily eat it all without me having to keep reminding him to "finish your food before it gets cold". 

I like to use garoupa fish cutlets - slice it into thin, bite size slices.  Make sure to remove all the bones if you are serving to small children.  For noodles, I prefer to use rice vermicelli (toong hoon, not mee hoon as we love the texture and it is not as heavy as the other noodles, but feel free to use your favourite type of noodles.

You will need two pots to make this.  Pot #1 is to cook the soup and all the ingredients.  Pot #2 is to blanch the rice vermicelli.  Do not cook the vermicelli in the soup as it will soak up all the soup and become one big soggy lump.  Instead, stir the vermicelli in boiling water in Pot#2 for no more than 30sec, drain it and apportion into serving bowls.  Once the soup is ready, simply pour in the soup and other ingredients.  This will give you a nice bowl of vermicelli that swim in the soup instead of soaking up all the soup.

Fish Slice Noodles with Rice Vermicelli

• 300g garoupa cutlet, slice thinly into bite size slices (best to cut when it is semi frozen, then it is easy to slice into very thin slices)
• 2 medium size tomatoes, rinsed and cut into chunks
• some slices of salted preserved mustard (ham choi)
• half a stalk of celery, remove the fibrous strands and cut into diagonal slices
• 8 slices of ginger
• 3/4 C evaporated milk
• 1.5 C water
• 3 tsp chicken stock powder (or use homemade stock equivalent to 1.5C)
• 2 tsp chinese cooking wine
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 3 clusters of dried rice vermicelli, soaked for 10min in normal tap water

1.  Bring the water to boil in Pot #1.  In Pot #2, add sufficient water to blanch the vermicelli.

2.  Once the water in Pot #1 is boiling, add in the tomatoes and ginger.  Bring to a boil and let simmer for about 10 min. 

3.  When the water in Pot #2 is boiling, add in the soaked rice vermicelli and quickly blanched for 20-30sec.  Drain and divide into individual serving bowls.

4.  Add in the chicken stock powder, chinese cooking wine and evaporated milk into the tomato broth, then season with salt and pepper.  The soup should be slightly more on the salty and creamy side as the vermicelli will dilute the soup slightly.

5.  Finally, add in the fish slices, salted mustard and celery, and stir for about 10 sec.  Switch off the fire and ladle the soup ontop of the vermicelli in the serving bowls.  Garnish with some chopped spring onion or cilantro and serve immediately.