A simple but delicious soup-and-noodle dish from Singapore, here with chicken, but easily turned vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian. Another of the recipes my father documented while travelling in the 1960s, but it still feels very contemporary.
Souped up
This Singapore noodle hot pot is one of the dishes my dad noted in his handwritten journals of recipes, captured in Singapore in the 1960s. What's notable about it is that there's practically no context in this case. He was usually meticulous about noting down the personal stories and cultural background of the recipes he documented.
With this one, there's no detail. Perhaps he didn't have time on this occasion to note it down or the people running the place where he ate it just weren't prepared to tolerate his incessant questions. It's one of the few recipes in his journals that have such a lack of detail.
Whatever the reason and despite its lack of detail, it's one of my favourite go-to dishes; incredibly simple, but also something that feels like it's a little special when you savour it.
This recipe serves 2 to 3 diners , so you can scale it up or down.
The version I'm doing here is with chicken but I more often do it with seafood or purely veggie (see below). It's highly adaptable to all of these needs and suited to combining e.g, chicken together with prawn or sliced fish balls etc. And, it's undoubtedly one of the best dishes for leftover roast chicken, turkey or any poultry.
Other ingredients are just as easily substituted. I'm using enoki mushrooms here, but oyster mushrooms or sliced plain old closed-cup mushrooms are equally good.
Similarly, I'm doing it here with fresh egg noodles, but it works well with glass noodles, rice noodles, dried udon, etc. Hence, select the noodle that meets your needs best—which also makes it easily adapted for vegans and veggies.
It's another dish I find kids really like. With only one red chilli, it's very mild.
And, for those of you with busy lives, it keeps well in the fridge or frozen. For me it's always been one of those "lifesaver" dishes that you can reheat from frozen in the microwave on those days when get home hungry and exhausted.
Shopping list
for the Singapore noodle hot pot
1 large white or brown onion, finely grated
2 tspns garlic & ginger paste
3 cups of chicken stock, (or alternative) fresh or diluted from cubes
2 to 3 stalks of celery, finely sliced
1 large red bell pepper, sliced vertically
1 hot red chilli, sliced
Approx. 1 skinless chicken breast (or less) per diner or alternatives (see below)
300g egg noodles (or other preffered noodles)
2 to 3 carrots, peeled and very finely sliced
200ml light coconut milk
Approx 50g enoki mushrooms
Approx 150g cherry tomatoes; washed and halved
2 tbspns of fresh coriander, finely chopped
4 "flowers" of star anise, roughly broken
3 lemon leaves (or 2 bay leaves)
Approx. 3 tbspns dark soy sauce
1 tspn turmeric
1 fresh lime
2 tbspns peanut oil
salt and pepper to taste
4 or 5 spring onions; chopped
Cooking Method
Deal with your protein first. Here I'm using leftover roasted chicken. If not using leftovers, ensure your chicken or beef is cooked; ideally cooked very simply without too much fuss, roasted or boiled in the case of chicken, flash-fried in the case of beef. Allow to cool and slice into bite-size pieces. You can obviously do this days before. With seafood—such as king prawns—leave them raw and cook directly in the soup
Heat your oil in a large pot with a lid on a medium/high heat. Once hot, add the garlic & ginger paste; adding the grated onion almost immediately and the chopped coriander after about 1min. No more than 2mins later, add the chilli and stir in. Cover and sweat for about 3mins
Reduce the heat slightly. Add the celery and stir in. Sizzle for a few mins. Add the the bell pepper shortly after and stir in. Cover and sweat together for about 4mins
Pour the stock into the pot to create the base of your soup. Add all of your spices, fresh coriander, lemon or bay leaves and the soy sauce. Cover and simmer for 7 to 8mins.
Add the carrot and cherry tomatoes. Re-cover and simmer for another for 4mins
Add the enoki mushrooms and simmer for a further 4mins
Add the chicken, tofu or beef slices. Also add the noodles and simmer for 4 to 5mins, stirring fairly regularly. NB: if using dried noodles, boil these in salted water first and drain i.e. don't add them directly to the soup in the way you do with fresh noodles. They will only need to cook in the soup for about 2mins—effectively you're simply reheating them. If using seafood such as sliced defrosted fish balls or king prawns, add them at this stage
Once the noodles (and any raw seafood) are optimally cooked, serve in bowls, garnish with the chopped spring onion and take to table with whatever condiments and side dishes you fancy.
Accompaniments
This is a pretty filling dish and also a great hack reducing dehydration. I usually never serve it with any side dishes but it's great to have with a few Indonesian prawn crackers
Alternatives
It's easy to make pescatarian, vegetarian or vegan versions of this highly adaptable recipe.
Replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock, fish stock or beef stock depending on your main protein.
This dish doesn't involve any of the fish-based products used in a lot of Asian cooking. So, it's easily turned vegan or veggie simply by opting for tofu or additional mushrooms instead of animal proteins. Similarly, it's really easy to make a tasty pescatarian version. And, you can combine—one of my favourites is to use both chicken and king prawns
If cooking a fish/seafood version, don't pre-cook these. Use raw or defrosted ingredients since fish and seafood cook optimally in very little time. The main exception is defrosted fish balls, which you can get frozen in many supermarkets—technically they're already par-cooked. These are one of my favourite ingredients for this dish
We need to talk about fish stock, darling. I'm not a great fan of overpriced products but, if you really do want to up your game on the fish/seafood version this responsibly sourced fish bone stock from Freja is notably excellent.
Pairings
My default setting is to pair wine with food. And, certainly, there are wines that work really well with this dish. But, oddly for me, it's one of the dishes I think is great with beer. The reason I say "oddly" is because I'm not a big beer drinker. What I find is that this meal is fantastic with one of those straightforward and "honest" beers; none of that hipster fancy stuff. I'm having it here with Camden Hells lager—which is probably my top tip for a match with this dish—but I know it also works will with Asahi Super Dry and Red Stripe, Jamaica's champion contribution to the form.
On the wine front, I think it works better with whites—even if you're doing it with beef. My all-time champion with this dish was this Slovenian ribolla gialla from Edi Simic. But, if you can't get your hands on it, my general feeling is that chenin blanc is the grape that works best with a lot of Asian dishes, and, of course, that my belover South African chenin blancs that are wildly available around the world and can be very affordable too.
A good South African chenin blanc always reminds me of one of those Capetonian girls who was brought up to be a polite little lady who minds her P's and Q's and knows which cutlery to use at table. But, in her heart she is a tomboy who can't wait to kick of her shoes and head out into the veldt armed only with fierce determination. It's one of those wines you want with this dish.
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