FISH BALL NOODLE SOUP

Awesome bowl of fragrant goodness, meals like this bring sunshine to your soul.  Aromatic fish balls in a fragrant broth and with the addition of noodles that makes this a complete meal in your bowl.

Ingredients

(Serves 2)

Broth

1 leftover chicken

1 stick celery

1 onion quartered

3 inch piece ginger

1 stick lemon grass bruised

2 red chilli's split

1 star anise

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 lemon halved and squeezed

2 tbsp palm sugar

To Serve

2 portions of rice noodles

Handful of water or land cress leaves

Handful of mezula leaves

Fish Balls

300g white fish

sea salt

white pepper

1 tsp fish sauce

1 clove garlic grated

1/2 tsp grated ginger

1 spring onion finely chopped

2 tbsp chopped coriander

squeeze of lime

First make the broth, I always have a jug of broth in my fridge, which makes meals like this super speedy.  Place all the ingredients for the broth in a deep saucepan and just cover with water, bring to a gentle simmer and cook for approx one hour.  Skim off any impurities from the both.  Once cooked strain and taste, you can strengthen the flavour of the broth by reducing the volume of the broth, season with sea salt and white pepper.

While the broth is cooking, make the fish balls.  Finely chop the fish and mix in all the other ingredients, form into golf ball size balls, giving them a firm squeeze to ensure they stay together while you cook them.

Cook the noodles according to the instructions, generally place in a boiled pan of water, off the heat and leave for a few minutes, then drain and rinse, toss through some sesame oil to stop them sticking together, place each portion in your serving bowls.  Back to the broth, bring to a gentle simmer and place the fish balls in the liquid and poach for a 2-3 minutes, turning each ball halfway through, ladle the balls and broth over the noodles and garnish.