Demolished Fish Soup (拆鱼羹)
A classic Cantonese soup from the city of Shunde.
The above might look like a congee, is… decidedly not a congee.
This is a dish called chaiyugeng or 'shredded fish soup', and it’s practically synonymous with the town of Shunde – a small city south of Guangzhou, and one of the epicenters of Cantonese cuisine.
In Shunde, it's one of those much beloved dishes where almost every family has their own recipe, but I think it can also actually tell us a bit about Cantonese food in general as well.
What's the Essence of Cantonese Food?
See, if you asked ten Cantonese chefs what the essence of Cantonese cuisine was, you'd probably get ten different people telling you that it's all about preserving "the original flavor" of ingredients.
And while, granted, Cantonese cuisine certainly doesn't make use of the chili pepper like neighboring Hunan does… that mantra never really jived with us.
Because like, there's plenty of bold flavors in Cantonese cuisine, right? Black bean garlic's pretty bold. Or, I mean, Fermented tofu. Shrimp paste. Fermented soybean paste. This isn't… some stuffy cuisine that doesn't know how to season things. Cantonese wonton noodle soup is my favorite noodle soup in the world, and there's probably enough dried seafood in there to choke a Penguin.
Instead, to us at least, Cantonese food is less about 'original flavor' and more about the playful manipulation of form.
Fish Manipulation.
For example, Shunde, aquacultually – is the land of two fish: the lingyu (鲮鱼) and the wanyu (鲩鱼). Now, you could keep that original flavor and make sashimi with the fish, and Shunde-style sashimi is quite delicious… but you could also chop it up real fine and use it as a stuffing.
Or, alternatively, you could take that paste, add some starch and egg, and deep fry it to get… fish tofu. Or, like we're doing today, you could make some milky fish stock, shred the meat, thicken and get… a dead ringer for congee. And outside of fish, you can find the so-called 'wild chicken roll's made from thinly sliced pork fat, and course, all kinds of milk… in raw form, pudding form, deep fried, and, naturally, stir fried.
And expanding past Shunde, isn't the entire Dim Sum cart basically stuff stuffed in stuff stuffed in other stuff?
I mean, c'mon, this is a fun cuisine.
So in that spirit? Let's take a look at some shredded fish and teach you how to turn it into a ‘congee’.
Demolished Fish Soup
For the milky fish stock:
1-2 large, flaky fish, ~1kg. In the video I used two small sea bass (海鲈).
Optional: Ginger, ~1 inch. Smashed.
Hot, boiled water, 1.5 liters.
This should yield about ~750-1000mL of milky fish stock. To get the base of the soup, we'll supplement that with:
Water, enough to get to 1500mL total (so, ~500-750mL).
Dried scallops (干贝), 8. Soaked in 1 cup (250mL) of hot, boiled water.
Other components:
Fuzhu, dried beancurd sticks (腐竹), 15g.
Mu'er, dried wood ear mushrooms (木耳), 5g.
Water chestnuts (马蹄), 4. Fresh is preferable, canned is ok.
Luffa Gourd (丝瓜) or cucumber, ~5 inches.
To season:
Salt, 1 tsp.
Sugar, 1 tsp.
White pepper powder (白胡椒粉), 1 tsp.
MSG (味精), ¼ tsp.
Fish sauce (鱼露), 1 tsp (optional).
To thicken:
Waterchestnut starch (马蹄粉), 6 tbsp. Dissolved in a bit of water.
Process:
First, start off by soaking 8 dried scallops in 1 cup (250mL) of hot water and 15g dried beancurd sticks & 5g dried wood ear mushrooms in cool water. Let both those soak for at least an hour.
Then, pan fry your 1-2 large, flaky fish (~1kg) fillets in a stick pot with ~1 tbsp or so of neutral oil (preferably lard). ~3.5 minutes each side, lid covered to capture the steam. Timing will depend on the size of your fish - cook until a chopstick can easily puncture the fish. Shred the fish into rice grain sized pieces. Pick it apart to ensure that there are no bones. Keep any skin or bones for your milky fish stock, reserve the shredded fish.
In the same pot as you fried the fillets - don't wash! - go in with another tsp or so of oil/lard and fry the fish bones and heads over a medium high flame. Fry until browned, ~3 minutes, then pour in 1.5L of hot, boiled water. Add back any skin or bones leftover from picking. Optionally add 1 inch of smashed ginger. Bring to a boil, and let it boil away over medium high heat - covered - for 45 minutes.
As the stock's boiling away, julienne your 4 water chestnuts, ~5 inches of luffa/cucumber, wood ear and beancurd sticks, etc. Set those aside.
After 45 minutes, strain your stock. Add enough water to the stock to get to 1.5L of liquid total. Add in the dried scallops together with their soaking liquid, and bring it up to a boil. Add in the wood ear, boil for 3 minutes. Add in the beancurd, the fish, and the luffa (if using), boil for another 3 minutes.
Season with 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp white pepper powder, 1/4 tsp MSG, and optional 1 tsp fish sauce, then thicken by pouring your slurry - 6 tbsp waterchestnut starch dissolved in a bit of water - in a thin stream. Add the water chestnuts and cucumber (if using). Serve.