Fish Ball Soup

It's a new year.
Weighing in everything (everything) in my life, this is my most hopeful year.
Hope-filled, rather.
My only resolution and prayer: Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Alternately, I could also do with the strength to change what I can, the inability to accept what I can't, and the incapacity to tell the difference.*

(*I sincerely believe that Calvin and Hobbes holds the answers to most of life's mysteries if we just look hard enough.)

As of January 26th, 2009, it will be the year of the Ox. It's never been a personal favorite, since it entails quiet suffering, and I prefer to suffer loudly. But here we are: the year of prosperity through hard work, the year that rewards patience, tireless effort, and the capacity to endure any hardship without complaint. And this year, I'm hoping with all that I have that it's true. Ox, don't fail me now.

In the vein of vain Chinese superstitions, I'm ushering in the new year with a lucky food: fish. (If you don't really understand the concept of lucky food, we're in the same boat, but this should help a bit.) But because I desperately need the new year to start now and because I'm afraid of fish heads, we're going to have a recipe for fish ball soup on the second day of January instead of a recipe for whole fish when Chinese New Year's rolls around. Fish (魚) symbolizes both success and abundance. It can't hurt, right? Right.


Fish Ball Soup
(sounds off-putting, but really, when you think about it: meatballs?)

Ingredients:
5 cups water
1/2 pound fish balls, cut into quarters
1/2 pound shrimp balls, cut into quarters
1/2 tsp granulated chicken bouillon
1 large stalk celery, diced
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
4 sprigs cilantro, chopped


In a medium pot, bring water to a boil. Add in cut fish and shrimp balls, and let stew for a minute to bring out the flavor. Add in the soy sauce (mostly for color), bouillon, salt, white pepper, and sesame oil, and let sit for another minute.

With the soup still at a boil, slowly pour in the egg over the surface of the soup. The boiling should break up the egg as it cooks so that it becomes the light and delicate texture of egg flower. (Do not stir the soup as the egg cooks, or you will end up with an unpleasantly opaque-ish soup, and no egg.) For heartier eggs, reduce the heat to medium before pouring the egg in, so that the egg doesn't break up as it cooks.)


Add the celery and cilantro last so that they retain their distinct individual flavors and so that the celery still retains some of its crunch. Serve immediately. (Serves 4-6).




Simplest soup ever. And still so tasty.