HOW TO COOK THE BEST FISH SOUP EVER

Hi there… my beautiful pupils and expectators… Lately a lot of things are going around in my little world…dramas… dramas… dramas… and more dramas… I mean small little personal problems from people surrounding me, sometimes from my friends, sometimes from the office and sometimes with people on the street… Its really kinda lonely when you are a very good listener, people tend to come to you and pour out their stuffs and problems. Its not that am complaining about that I love to listen but sometimes its just too overwhelming that people don’t notice that I’m busy having a nervous breakdown.

Well… anyway but one good thing that makes me happy today is that I had “Ew” (pronounced Eeeewwww). She used to be the Khmer house-help of a filipino gay where I stayed here in Cambodia almost three years ago. I don’t know what happened to them but nevertheless “Ew” is happy to work with me again in my beautiful apartment. She’ll be helping me every Saturdays and I’m so glad because she’s very good with her ironing. I remember my mother once told me that you will know a person by the way he or she treated their maids be it mentally, emotionally or physically… maybe that’s one reason why she opted to work for me again…

So last Saturday when I came back home from my weekly market at Mother Helen which I bought 2 small salmon, a kilo of pork, half a kilo of beef, a kilo of chicken and some leaves and bulbs… I ask Ew if she can help me prepare the fish for the fish soup… I just felt like having a fish soup… that’s usually a comfort food for me whenever I’m stressed-out…

A lot of people don’t like fish because of its strong smell but remember fish is very healthy and very easy to cook. Some fish are good for grilling, some for frying and fillet, some are good for soups… I usually use saltwater fish especially the belly and head part which is more tasty for soups… but not the small ones. The red grouper ( Lapu-lapu ) is very good with these kind of recipe but because its quite expensive and so difficult to find and avail, I’m using a medium sized salmon instead. The soup am going to teach you today is called Fish Tinola. Its very common in the Visayas in the Philippines where in a lot of fishes are very fresh. The soup is very simple and easy to do. In Luzon they have a chicken version of the soup which they called Tinolang Manok. Anyways so here we go.

How to cook the best fish soup ever…

Clean the fish ( grouper, salmon ) and cut it into two inches thick and skew them with toothpick, this is to prevent the fish from breaking apart as fish meat is easy to crumble. Then sprinkle with salt, cover and set aside.

Boil three regular sized bowl of water in a pot with four tablespoon of rocksalt, when the water boils put in four crushed ripe tomatoes, chopped Chinese leek, along with knotted and pounded lemongrass. Cover again until the skin of the tomatoes are detached from the flesh.

Then put in the fish along with green bell pepper and red bell pepper.

Cover the pot and let it boil for 15 minutes.

Put in the leaves like Sajina ( malunggay ) or you can use baby cabbage if Sajina is not available.

There it is my pupils serve it when its still hot… hmmmmmm…

okay to recapped the ingredients you need…

A fish ( of course ) I recommend “grouper” and salmon
4 fresh ripe tomatoes --- crushed
2 stalks of Chinese leek --- cut in two inches wide
1 stalk of lemongrass including the green part --- white flesh pounded and knotted
1 green bell pepper --- cut into squares
1 red bell pepper --- cut into squares
1 bouquet of sajina or 1 small baby cabbage cut into squares.

Okay have a fishy valentines day!!! mwahhh…

no grammar checking please... I'm trying to be best in english...