Effortless Fish Soup

When I don't know what to cook... I often end up cooking Oden or Fish Soup.

This Fish Soup is really simple.. Besides the few main ingredients, I can add in what I want.. and usually, I add in what I need to clear in the fridge.

The key ingredients for this soup is:
- Fish (Bones and fish slices. You can get the people in the market to cut it for you.. )
- Ginger
- Tomatoes

The various other ingredients I sometimes add are:
- Mushrooms
- Toufu
- Black fungus
- Assorted vegetables
- Other Seafood (When I add other seafood, this soup becames a Seafood Soup, like it is today...)

I always consider a fish-based soup good if the soup turns out milkish. And no, I don't add milk to it. That would be so wrong! What I do is heat some oil in a pot, add a thick slice of ginger and fish bones (meatier and larger fish bones.. you don't want to have to pick out some pieces of bones in your soup!) to fry them til nice and slightly brown.

Then while the pot is still very hot, pour in boiling water. And then boil at high heat for about 30 minutes or longer. The soup will look milky white after 30 minutes.
 
It's the combination of the fried fish + very hot pot + boiling water + boiling at high heat that will turn the soup white.

Then I'd just arrange all the different ingredients into the pot and boil them until they are all cooked. And then season with salt and pepper to taste.

I usually add in the fish slices and seafood last, just before serving because the seafood takes just a little while to cook.

And then there you have it.. an effortless fish soup.. Besides some chopping required for the tomatoes and vegetables, this is a basically wash and throw-in-pot type of soup.

Again, not the best picture.. but this is a yummy, easy soup