Gorge Pearl Soup
A scenic soup featuring whipped egg-white foam shaped into gorge peaks, vegetables as shrubs, clear broth as flowing river water, and fish-paste balls as pearls.
Ingredients
Clean gannan fish meat (minced into paste)
to taste
Spinach juice
to taste
Egg yolk
to taste
Edible red coloring (food dye)
to taste
Chicken breast (cut into 3 cm long, 1 cm wide slices)
to taste
Dried shrimp (soaked in warm water)
to taste
Whitebait (soaked in warm water)
to taste
Egg white
6
Cilantro stems and leaves (for tree-like garnish)
several
Chicken broth
to taste
Lard
to taste
Chicken fat
to taste
Instructions
1
Make the three-color fish paste
After soaking the clean gannan fish meat, mince it into a paste and place it in a bowl. Add egg white, lard, ginger juice, fine salt, and monosodium glutamate, then stir well. Divide the mixture evenly into 3 small bowls. Squeeze spinach juice into one bowl and mix to make a green fish paste; add egg yolk to another bowl and mix to make a yellow fish paste; add the edible red coloring to the third bowl and mix to make a red fish paste. Cut the chicken breast into 3 cm long, 1 cm wide slices. Place the dried shrimp and whitebait into two additional small bowls and soak them in warm water.
2
Make the egg-white foam
Place 6 egg whites in a soup plate. Beat them with bamboo chopsticks in one direction until the chopsticks can stand upright in the egg-white foam without falling over. Add the spinach juice, continue beating until evenly combined, then pour the foam onto an oiled plate. Steam over high heat for 1 minute. Remove and cut from the middle into a gorge-mouth shape. Insert several cilantro stems and leaves on both sides of the gorge to garnish as little trees.
3
Simmer and finish the dish
Set a wok over high heat, add lard and heat until hot. Pour in the chicken broth, then add the three-color fish balls, dried shrimp, whitebait, and fine salt. Bring to a boil, add the chicken breast slices, and cook for 1 minute. Transfer everything to a soup tureen, drizzle with the chicken fat, then gently slide the egg-white foam into the tureen so it floats on the surface of the soup. Serve immediately.
