Ka Poa Pla : Chinese style fish maw soup

                Last Sunday I had my daughters birthday party.  I wanted to make something special so I decided to make this dish.  For this food it is not actually Thai food but it is more like Chinese.  In Thailand we take culture from Chinese and food is one of them.  Chinese people in Thailand believe that soup will help the cycle of blood in your body to have a good circulation and keep you warm in winter.  This dish will be good to eat it when the weather changes from hot to cold. 

For this dish in Thailand we call it Ka Poa Pla meaning stomach of fish soup  (I know that sounds scary right!!!).  Actually they didn’t use the stomach but they used fish maw of fish (it is like the air bag of the fish) and the Ka Poa Pla maker will prepare it for easy storage and eat by taking the fish maw off from the fish then dry by air and deep fried until crunchy and sell it at this point.  So for me I will by the one that is already deep fried for making this soup.

                For the fish maw you can find it in a Chinese grocery or an Asian grocery.  It is a little bit pricy, but it is good for you so you might want to try one.

Ingredients

1 pack 2 oz. fish maw (already deep fried)

2 can of 14 oz. thin sliced bamboo shoot

10 hard boil quail eggs (optional)

 1 3-4 lb whole chicken

6 dry shitake mushrooms

3 cilantro roots

4 tbsp. Light soy sauce

4 tbsp. Oyster sauce

2 tbsp. Black soy sauce

3 tbsp. Sugar

Pepper

1/3 cup. Corn starch + 1/3 cup. water

¼ cup Chinese cooking wine (but If you cannot find it don’t worry about it.)

Cilantro

Cooking instructions

1.       In a large bowl add warm water then soak fish maw and let it sit for 1 hour, drain it out from water set aside

2.       Then wash it with water 2 times squeeze it very well each time.

Note : this process for cleaning fish maw is to take away the fishy smell of it.

3.       Large pot boiling 12 cups of water with chicken and cilantro root, pepper for about 1 hour. Meanwhile rehydrate mushroom by soak in the warm water for about 30 minutes

4.       After 1 hour take the chicken out and shred the chicken and set aside.

5.       In the soup pot add bamboo shoot, soy sauce, oyster sauce, black soy sauce, sugar, Chinese cooking wine when it boils again add the fish maw at last add corn starch mixture into the soup and keep stirring while adding the mixture (the soup will not be lumpy)

6.       When serving add hard boil quail eggs, shredded chicken in the bowl then add the soup and top with pepper, cilantro.

PS: I don't have too many picture because I've been busy with the party and this soup is gone so fast!!!