Fish Porridge

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This is a recipe for Singapore-style fish soup (鱼粥). I used toman fish this time as I like to feature different fish in various recipes. It is also inexpensive and easy to cook. You can use other fish such as batang (Spanish mackeral), red grouper, pomfret and threadfin.

See Also:

• Seafood Porridge Recipe
• Red Grouper Fish Soup Recipe
• Cheater’s Sliced Fish Bee Hoon Recipe
• Yummy Singapore Hawker Food Recipes

The local style of fish porridge is adding cooked white rice to the soup, not literally making porridge on the stove. Alternative to adding the rice directly to the fish soup, you can serve a bowl of fish soup with a side bowl of rice, or add noodles (glass noodles, rice vermicelli or ee-fu noodles) to make it a one-dish meal.

Step-by-Step Photos

I’m using toman fish here. The local supermarket (NTUC) always sells toman fish already sliced and skinless so that’s a bonus for me. Cut the fish to uniform thin slices.

Prepare the vegetables (bittergourd, lettuce & tomato) and tofu.

These are the ingredients for the fish soup stock: ikan bilis, dried shrimps, dried fish sole & ginger.

For convenience, I place the fish stock ingredients in disposable soup pouches. I also added one sour plum (the type used for steaming fish). Pictured above is the fish stock after 15 minutes of simmering. Discard pouches. Add more water and season to taste if needed. Sometimes I prepare the fish stock one day in advance (keep chilled in the fridge overnight, freezer if longer) so that I can cook the fish soup quickly on a weekday after work. Tip: If busy, use instant fish stock cube with water as a short-cut.

Bring fish stock to a boil, then add vegetables and tofu for 30 seconds, followed by fish slices. Everything cooks really fast here, so don’t overcook.

In the serving bowl, add dong cai (冬菜) …

… and cooked white rice.

Ladle hot soup over the rice, add lettuce and garnish. Enjoy!~