A quick and easy lunch or dinner. Egg noodles topped with frozen fish balls, shrimps, bok choy and scallions are served in dashi. A marriage of Chinese and Japanese cuisines.

Cook’s notes

For days when you just aren’t in the mood to cook, there’s such a thing as a pantry dish. This is one of them. One of the best pantry dishes I have ever cooked, seriously.

A delightful noodle soup that requires very little cooking — if you can call dropping shrimps, fish balls and bok choy in simmering broth “real” cooking.

The shrimps were bought fully shelled and deveined, and only needed to be thawed. The noodles were bought fresh as well (we’re fortunate to be within a five-minute drive from a good Japanese / Korean grocery) and they just had to be blanched.

And the fish balls? Although you buy them frozen, they come fully cooked. Once thawed, you just drop them in boiling broth to heat them through.

And I’m using the term “fish balls” here in a loose sense. In Asian groceries, you can find fish balls (seafood balls, to be more precise) in so many flavors. Lobster balls and cuttlefish balls were used here. You may opt for shrimp balls, squid balls or basic fish balls.

Shrimp and fish ball ramen

Prep: 5

Cook: 10

Total: 15

Servings: 4 people

Course: Breakfast, Main Course

Cuisine: Asian

Label: Noodle soup, Ramen, Shrimp

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Ingredients

8 cups dashi
400 grams fish balls (about 14 oz) thawed
400 grams shrimps (about 14 oz) shelled and deveined (thawed if using frozen)
1 bunch bok choy
fresh egg noodles to serve four
fish sauce
sliced scallions to garnish

Instructions

Heat the dashi in a pot.
When the dashi boils, drop in the fish balls. Cook for five minutes.
Drop the shrimps into the broth. Cook for two minutes.
Scoop out the fish balls and shrimps. Keep the broth simmering.
Into the simmering broth, add the bok choy. Cook for five minutes and scoop out.
Taste the broth. Add fish sauce if it has turned bland.
Divide the noodles, fish balls, shrimps and bok choy among four bowls.
Ladle in hot broth.
Top the shrimp and fish balls noodle soup with sliced scallions before serving.