XO Fish Slice Soup -- Fried Fish Slice or Non Fried? Evaporated milk or No evaporated milk?

The Fried Fish Slice Version

Another dish I miss. The XO 鱼片米粉. There used to have one stall which my husband and I love. I think it is call Holland Village XO 鱼片米粉. It is not at Holland V but at a HDB flat coffee shop at Bukit Merah near the Spring Singapore. But sad to say they shifted somewhere else and I don't know where they are. If you know please tell me!

I bought a cheapo brandy for cooking purpose. It is just nice to try cooking XO 鱼片汤. Whenever I buy salmon for cooking I will ask the person to fillet for me and ask him to give me back the bones so that I can cook fish broth for this dish. However maybe there is not enough bones the fish broth that I cook does not have enough sweetness of a fish broth, but it does have the milky look, which means you can skip adding the evaporated milk if you don't like (like my mum who don't take any diary products). I have tried a healthier version of not frying the fish slices and ginger slices (if you are lazy sometimes, you can skip this too). I fried the fish slices when I can't get very fresh fish. Frying the fish also helps to keep the fish slices from not breaking apart. And i think frying the fish makes the fish taste better. I learnt from a cooking show of frying the ginger slices with sesame seed oil and pour the ginger and oil into the soup to cook so that the it will taste more fragrant. I have also tried that, but I find it too oily. So there are many ways to cooking it. It depends on what you like.

Ingredients for fish broth:
1) Fish bones
2) 10 to 15 Ginger Slices
3) 1 stalk of spring onion
4) Water

Steps:
1) Bring water to boil and add in all the ingredients.
2) Simmer for around 2 hours until the broth turns milky.

Ingredients for XO 鱼片汤:
1) Fish slices
2) 10 to 15 slices of ginger
3) 2 tomatoes cut into quarters
4) A few slices of bitter gourd (optional)
5) Some lettuce (those used for salad) cut into thin strips (optional)
6) Flour & oil (if you want to fry the fish slices)
7) Salt or Bonito powder
8) Brandy or XO
9) Cilantro
10) Evaporated milk

Steps:
1) Marinate the fish slices with some soya sauce and pepper. If you want to fry the fish, you will need to coat the fish with flour. Than heat up some oil in the pan to shallow fry the slices. I prefer to shallow fry than deep fry as it is less oily. If you also want to shallow fry the ginger, you can add in sesame oil and use low heat to fry it until they turn slightly brown.
2) Boil the fish broth again. When it is boiling add in the ginger slices (if you have fried them add in the fried slices and the sesame oil too) ,tomatoes and bitter gourd (if you are using)
3) Let it simmer for around 5 minutes add in the fish slices. and the lettuce.
4) When the soup starts to boil again, you can season the soup with salt or bonito powder and evaporated milk (if you are adding). Add in some Shao Xing wine and Brandy/XO too. You can serve once you are happy with the taste and the fish slices are cooked (if you are not using the fried slices)
5) Add in some chopped cilantro when serving the soup.

The non fried fish slices version

PS: I eat this with rice. You can add in thick bee hoon into the soup and you can have XO 鱼片米粉!