Abalone Soup ~ CNY 2011

Hi, I'm back!  Made this Abalone Soup for the reunion dinner and the soup was really delicious.  Abalone is 'Bao Yu' in Cantonese, 'Bao' sounds like 'guaranteed' and 'Yu' sounds like 'excess' so put together it sounds like 'guaranteed excess'!   Now, that's something to look forward to, to usher in the New Year!  I used fresh abalone and it was my first experience handling this and thought that it would be a daunting task.  Surprisinlgy it was not to be and removing them from their shells and cleaning them weren't that difficult after all.

I used these three ingredients for the soup .... Wai San, Gojiberries and Tung Choong Choe and these 3 strands of 'roots' cost me a whopping 20 ringgit!

Pried open the shell and here's the abalone intact with the guts, head, etc.  I used a spatula  to slide along the edge and the abalone slid out.  The abalone attached to its shell with a solid round muscle at the bottom and there's a slimy, bluish sort of pouch.  Cut  off  all the guts and  used a toothbrush to scrub off the black film along the sides of the abalone under running water.  Cut off and discard the curled edges and pointed end.

A 'clean shaven' abalone ready to be cooked.  Scrub off the dirt from the shell, air dry it for decorative purpose if you wish. 

Chicken soup ........now where's the abalone?   Hold on .........

The star of the show ...... I dished out the abalone, made some sauce and served them on a bed of young choy sam, 'choy far'.  So this has been transformed into a '2 in 1' dish with a nutritious and tasty soup, seafood and veggie.

Ingredients

• 420 gm pork ribs
• 600 gm free range chicken
• 6 fresh abalone
• 3 strands Tong Choong Choe
• 10 gm Gojiberries
• 10 gm Wai San
• 4 cups water
• Salt to taste

Preparation

1. Boil some water in a pot and blanch the cleaned and washed abalone for a while, dish out.
2. Bring to the boil another round of water and blanch the pork ribs, dish out and drain.
3. Prepare a double boiler and add in 4 cups of water of hot water in the pot.
4. Add in the abalone, pork ribs, chicken and double boil for 3.1/4 hours under medium low heat.
5. Add in the tong choong choe, gojiberries, wai san and double boil for another 45 mins.
6. Add salt to taste.
7. Dish out the abalone and set aside.
8. Serve the soup, hot.

Sauce for the abalone

• 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
• 1.1/2 cups water
• 1/4  tsp sugar
• 2 tsp Shaoxing wine
• 2 tsp cornflour + 1 Tbsp water to thicken

In a pot of boiling water, add in 2 tsp oil and a pinch of salt, blanch the choy far, remove, drain and place on a serving plate.
Mix the oyster sauce, sugar and water.  Bring to the boil, add in the thickening.  Test for taste, switch off fire and add in the wine.
Arrange the abalone on the bed of vegetables.
Pour the sauce over and serve.