Fish and Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

1 medium whole fish (about 600 g) such as white or black pomfret or red snapper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 ginger, sliced
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium-sized carrot, sliced
1 rib celery, diced
3 larges tomatoes, skinned and diced
600 ml water
1 tbsp chopped parsley or spring onion
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper to taste

Method:

Clean and gut fish, and cut into 1 cm thick slices. Cut head into two halves.

To make the fish stock, heat oil and fry the ginger and fish head until half-cooked and add water. When cooked, strain to leave only the liquid for the stock.

Heat oil in a roomy pan and “sweat” onion, garlic, carrots and celery until translucent, but not browned. Add tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes before adding fish stock.

Simmer soup over low heat for 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Just before serving, rub a little salt and freshly grounded pepper on fish slices and slip them into the soup. Bring to the boil and cook for 5-6 minutes.

Ladle the soup into deep soup bowls and sprinkle liberally with chopped parsley or spring onion and serve immediately.

Salmon and Rice Cakes

Ingredients:

1 cup (200 g) Calrose rice*
1 salmon steak (about 200 g)
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp finely chopped ginger
½ tbsp finely chopped parsley
Salt and freshly grounded black pepper

Method:

Cook rice in a rice cooker with 1½ cups of water and ½ tsp of salt. When ready, fluff up with a fork and leave to cool.

Season salmon with salt and pepper and pan fry on medium heat for 3-4 minutes on either side. Transfer onto a plate and using 2 forks, roughly flake the fish and remove all bones and skin. Combine the fish, rice, ginger and parsley. Season to taste.

With clean, moist hands, press the rice mixture into “burger” shaped patties, roughly 5 cm across. Compress the cakes well so that they won’t fall apart when pan-fried.

Heat a frying pan over medium heat and lightly grease it by wiping it with a paper towel that has been dipped in cooking oil. Cook the rice cakes until lightly browned and crisp on both sides.

Serve immediately with tomato and onion salsa.

*This Japanese rice has the perfect sticky texture for this recipe but if you don’t stock it, substitute by using ½ cup glutinous rice and ½ cup regular rice.