HOT AND SOUR SEAFOOD SOUP.
Ingredients.
2tablespoon of vegetable oil.
½ pound of fresh, medium shrimp, shells cleaned and deveined.
8cups of basic chicken stock.
2teaspoons of salt.
The outer, yellow peel of 2 lemons, cut into strips.
The peel from ½ a lime.
2 green Serrano chillies or 1 jalapeno chilli, seeded and cut into silvers.
½ pound of firm, white fish fillets, cut into strips about 2 inch long.
6dried Chinese mushrooms, cut into strips.
¼ pound cooked crabmeat, cut into chunks.
2 to 3 tablespoons of fish sauce.
3 limes juice.
2 fresh red-dried red chilli, coarsely chopped.
30 fresh coriander leaves.
Method.
1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and fry the shrimp’s shells until they turn pink. Add the chicken stock, salt, lemon and lime pile and green chillies or the jalapeno chilli. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat and simmer for fifteen minutes.
2. Strain the contents of the saucepan through a sieve, discarding the solids, and return the stock to the pan. Bring it to a boil again.
3. Add the fish pieces and the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes. Add the shrimp and let the soup boil for two minutes more. Stir in the crabmeat and add fish sauce. Immediately remove the pan from the heat.
4. Stir in the lime juice and then shift the contents of the pan to a soup dish. Sprinkle with red chilli silvers, spring onions and coriander and serve at once.
SPINACH SOUP WITH EGGS.
Ingredients.
4cups of basic fish stock.
10 spinach leaves, washed and cut across into 1-inch sections.
2 eggs, beaten.
2 teaspoons of soy sauce.
8 to 10 oyster crackers.
Method.
1. Bring the stock to a boil and add spinach. Immediately reduce the heat to a simmer and cook the spinach for 5 minutes.
2. Begin to stir the soup and gently pour in the beaten eggs, stirring until they form shreds. Season with the soy sauce and remove the soup from the heat.
3. Pour the soup into individual soup bowls and float two oyster crackers on each.
BASIC FISH STOCK.
Ingredients.
1pound chicken pieces in 2 quarts of cold water, cut off all skin and fat.
2 teaspoons of white vinegar.
2 spring onions.
2 cups of clam juice.
Method.
1. Place all the ingredients except the clam juice in a pan and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce the heat, cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes.
2. Remove the chicken and onions and pour in the clam juice. Bring back to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for more5 minutes.
3. Let the stock cool and then strain it through a sieve.
