This dish looks simple and unappetising at first sight. Just a bowl of soup with a lot of greens in it. It’s akin to the small bowl of soup that hawkers place alongside your bowl of bak chor mee and chicken rice. But precisely because they are just accompaniments, they should not be overwhelming – with simple flavours, easy for the palette and easy to digest.
I love how this bowl of soup is full of flavours, even though it has only a few ingredients. It’s difficult for me to describe because you’ve got to taste it to know. I can have this any time and feel happy about it.
I guess it’s the simple pleasures in life that I have come to appreciate, including the basic flavours in simply cooked food. Which is one of the main reasons why I keep revisiting the recipes in the Home Economics Book because it’s filled with recipes of home-cooked food and food made with love.
Ingredients:
- Boiling water: 800ml
- Ikan bilis: 2 tbsp
- Spinach: 150g, roughly chopped
- Small prawn: 50g, shelled & deveined
- Fishcake: 1, sliced
- Salt: 1/2 tsp
- Fish sauce: 1 tbsp
- Shaoxing wine: 1 tbsp
- Ground white pepper: a dash
Method:
- Place boiling water and ikan bilis in a saucepan. Simmer for 20min.
- Add in spinach, prawns, fishcake slices, salt, fish sauce and shaoxing wine. Simmer for 3min.
- Add white pepper. Serve hot with rice.
Disclaimer:
-
This recipe was kindly adapted from my Secondary School Home Economics Book (1E). The recipe has only salt as a condiment for the soup and I’ve had to add in the other condiments to make it taste nicer and more appetising.
Serving:
3 – 4 persons as side dish
