How to Make Dongtai Fish Soup Noodles
According to legend, during the reign of Emperor Qianlong, there was a noodle shop owner in Dongtai.One night, he found a new noodle stall on the street and went to buy a bowl of noodles. The noodles were from a small stand selling them. He took a look at it, noticing how thick and milky white the broth was. After some time, a film formed on the surface of the bowl. Taking a taste, he found it both fresh and fragrant, far superior to what his own shop served. The owner's mind stirred as he carefully inquired from the stall vendor. It turned out that the stall owner was actually an imperial chef from the palace. He had been expelled from the palace because of a failed attempt at making soup. Forced to wander, he could only operate a small stand to make ends meet. Upon hearing this, the owner thought it must be an imperial delicacy, no wonder how delicious it was. Thus, he promptly invited the vendor into his shop and had him take charge of the kitchen. From then on, all the noodles in the store were made by the imperial chef himself.The noodles were cooked using a special fish broth,"fishtangnoodle", which was highly praised by those who tried it. News of its excellence spread far and wide, making it famous in the region.
Ingredients:500 grams of carp, 150 grams of eel,300 grams of pork bones, 15 grams of shrimp seeds,3 grams of salt, 20 grams each of ginger and scallions,10 grams of cooking wine, 3 grams of white pepper,500 grams (50 used) of cooked pork fat, 250 grams of wheat flour,2 egg whites. Procedure:1. Clean the carp and keep them ready; boil the eel meat, save the bones. 2. Fry the carp and eel bones in cooked pork fat until golden brown, then remove. Fry the pork bones with oil until done.3. In a large pot, bring water to a boil and add the fried ingredients, ginger, scallions, and cooking wine; cook for 10 minutes, then strain out the ingredients, drain well, and set aside to make first broth. Repeat this process twice more to create second and third broths, combining them all into one thick soup after filtering out the fish residue. Add fried pork bones, ginger, scallions, cooking wine, shrimp seeds (in a muslin bag), and simmer until the broth is white and thick. 4. Mix flour with salt and egg whites, adding water as needed to form dough, roll into sheets, fold, and cut into even strands of noodles.
5. Marinate the eel meat in ginger, scallions, cooking wine, and salt before frying until crispy.
6. In a pot of boiling water, add the noodles without stirring; when they rise to the surface naturally, remove them and rinse under cold running water, then re-boil briefly and drain.
7. Place the noodles in bowls, pour over hot fish broth, add shrimp seeds and scallions, and season with white pepper and salt.
Take a soup pot and add boiling water, then put in the fried ingredients, ginger, scallions, and cooking wine. Boil for 10 minutes over high heat.
Then strain out the ingredients, drain them dry, to make the first thick soup. Fry the strained ingredients until they turn light yellow, and return them to the pot to boil again for another thick soup. Repeat this process three times, frying and boiling three times in total. Combine all three soups, continue to simmer until the soup is rich and white.
Marinate the eel meat with ginger, scallions, cooking wine, and salt, then deep-fry it until crisp.
Mix flour with salt, egg whites, and water to form a dough. Roll out the dough into a sheet using a rolling pin, fold it, and cut it into evenly sized strands of noodles. Marinate the eel meat with ginger, scallions, cooking wine, and salt before deep-frying it until crispy.Season with white pepper and salt. Stir well and serve.
