Seafood brings a strong flavour and scent of the ocean to any dish it is added to.
They can be added straight to soups or they can be processed and added with other ingredients to form new tastes and forms.
Always use fresh seafood to make chinese soups.
Be meticulous about removing dirt from seafood.
A seafood thickened soup
Thickened soup is always popular especially with fresh seafood and tofu. The ingredients are diced so that you can taste the freshness of the prawns, fish, sea cucumber and crab, and the silken tofu in every mouthful. A kaleidoscope of taste.
Bring soup stock to a boil, add prawn, fish, sea cucumber, crab meat and tofu. Bring to a boil
Add the asparagus and seasonings
Simmer for 5 minutes or until ingredients are cooked
Slowly pour in the cornstarch mixture while stirring the soup. Do not pour everything in at one go. Stir and see if the soup has reached the consistency you want. Discard excess mixture
Serve it hot
Shrimp balls soup with mushrooms
The shrimp balls look like apples with the celery sticks sticking out. Add more than one type of mushrooms to make the soup more interesting.
I was taught since young that when boiling dumplings, fish balls, or meat balls, they are ready when they float to the surface of the water. Never fail yet.
Add the seasoning for the shrimp balls to the minced shrimps. Mix them up till the mixture is slightly sticky
Wash the straw mushrooms and cut in half
Wash the celery and cut into thin short strips
Shape the shrimp mixture into round balls and insert one strip of celery in the centre of each shrimp ball. Make sure that one end of the celery strip is sticking out of the shrimp ball
Place the shrimp balls in a bowl of water to hold their shapes
Bring soup stock to a boil, lower the heat and add the shrimp balls into the soup. Cook for about 8 minutes or until the shrimp balls float to the surface
Add the straw mushrooms and carrot slices
Bring the entire pot to a boil. Lower the heat and cook till the vegetables are cooked
Add soy sauce and sesame seed oil before serving
Crab and corn soup recipe
This crab and corn soup is a very satisfying thickened soup.
It does not have too much fat because the creaminess of the soup comes from the corn.
Fresh crab meat would add a touch of luxury to this simple chinese soup.
Ingredients
1 can of corn (cream style)
150g fresh crab meat
1 egg white
1 teaspoon of bacon bits
500ml soup stock
salt and pepper to taste
Cornstarch Mixture
Add 3 tablespoon of water (about 45ml) to 1 tablespoon of cornstarch. Stir to break up any lumps. You can use cornstarch or corn flour or potato starch
Directions
Combine corn cream and soup stock in a pot
Heat over stove till the corn soup starts to boil
Add the crab meat into the soup , stirring gently to break up any clumps of meat
When the corn soup starts to boil, pour the cornstarch mixture into the soup slowly. If you are new to using cornstarch, add it in one spoonful at a time. Stir after each addition until the soup thickens to a consistency you want
Bring the corn soup to a boil again
Beat the egg white slightly
Remove the soup from the stove and quickly drizzle the egg white into the soup. Use a pair of chopsticks or fork, place at the edge of the bowl to guide the egg white flow
Give the soup a quick gentle stir to separate the egg white
Add salt and pepper to taste. Do take into account the saltiness of the bacon bits to be added later
Sprinkle the bacon bits on top of crab and corn soup just before serving.
