Whenever I go to Kuala Lumpur for business, I will try my best to go to my favourite stall to have a nice bowl of steaming hot fish head noodles. Why you ask? Because this dish is one of my favourite noodle dishes when I want something soupy. Since, I cannot always go to Kuala Lumpur for this, I decided to cook it myself.

In this dish, the broth is the main cast and though it might be a tedious process but you will really enjoy it with no regrets. The broth is very flavourful, this is derived from the many hours of simmering the fish bones and chicken bones coupled with slices of gingers, spring onions, anchovies and salted vegetables. Can you smell the aroma from my kitchen now??? Here we go… Happy cooking!

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Serves 5 to 6 persons

WHAT YOU NEED

EQUIPMENT:

2 pots

INGREDIENTS:

Broth:

950g to 1kg of fish bones

Some chicken carcasses or 1 cube of chicken stock

5 cm of ginger, skinned off and thinly sliced

5 to 6 stalks of spring onions, only the white part (Keep the green part to be used later as garnish for the noodles)

50g of salted vegetables (Soaked in water for 5 to 10 minutes and sliced into thick slices)

150g of anchovies or ikan bilis

5 to 6 tablespoon sesame oil

A pinch of white pepper

A pinch of salt (optional)

Other ingredients:

600g Garoupa slices (My fishmonger, deboned the fish and sliced them nicely for me. You can use other kind of firm-fleshed white fish)

Thick/Thin Rice Vermicelli (You can get the fresh or the dried ones)

6 tomato (Cut into 4 wedges)

6 thin slices of ginger

250g of salted vegetables (Soaked in water for about 5 to 10 minutes and sliced into thick slices)

1 tablespoon cornflour

1 can full cream evaporated milk

Fish sauce

Some Chinese rice wine

Chilli, cut (optional)

Light soya sauce (optional)

PREPARATION:

Broth:

1. Heat sesame oil in the pot and add the slices of the ginger and sauté till fragrant.
2. Add the spring onions and the anchovies and sauté till fragrant.
3. Add the washed fish bones and chicken carcasses or chicken cube, pepper and salt (optional).
4. Add water so that it’s slightly above the ingredients and bring to boil.
5. Skim away the impurities that have floated to the top of the broth.
6. Continue to simmer over low flame for 2 hours or if you want a milky looking broth simmer for another 1 to 1 ½ hours. You may add water if you find that the water level is too low.
7. Once it is done, sift the stock to another pot and discard all the ingredients in the sieve.
8. Add in the tomato wedges, salted vegetables, a few tablespoon of Chinese wine, slices of ginger and a few dashes of fish sauce and bring to boil.
9. Turn off the heat.

Fish:

1. In a container, mix a tablespoon of cornflour and some salt into water.
2. Place the rinsed fish slices layer by layer and set aside in the fridge.
3. When ready to eat, take the fish slices out of the fridge and blanch them then set aside for serving.

Rice Vermicelli:

1. Blanch the fresh rice vermicelli and portion out in bowls.
2. Soak the dried ones until a texture is soft, blanch and portion out in bowls.

Serving:

1. Add some spring onions and fish slices into the bowl of noodle
2. Scoop the hot broth over the bowl of noodles
3. Add some Chinese wine and evaporated milk into your hot bowl of noodles
4. Serve with a small dish of cut chillies in light soya sauce at the side. (optional)

*Unlike chicken carcasses, I am uncertain whether you can buy any fish bones from the wet markets or supermarkets. For me, I can only cook this dish when I have accumulated enough of the fish bones so it is always a treat.