Chinese seafood soup goes beyond fish with the use of some exotic ingredients.
The Chinese likes shellfish such as clams, and oysters. Crabs are well-liked too. Let me introduce 2 slightly more exotic seafood. But do you know of these 2 exotic seafood?
Sea cucumber 海参 (hai shen) might be a new ingredient to you. It is commonly sold in dried form and have to be boiled and soaked in water for 1 to 2 nights to fully re-hydrate. It can be omitted if it is too troublesome or too weird for you.
Recipe 1. Seafood tofu soup
I like this seafood tofu soup. It has all my favorite ingredients. The ingredients are diced finely so you can get the freshness of the shrimps, fish, sea cucumber, crab, and silken tofu in every mouthful.
Ingredients
80g sea cucumber
80g shrimps
80g fish fillet
50g crab meat
100g silken tofu
750ml soup stock
1 egg
1 asparagus
40g cornstarch solution
Salt and pepper
Directions
Wash and dice the prawns, fish and sea cucumber
Parboil the seafood for about 2 minutes
Wash, peel and dice the asparagus
Bring soup stock to a boil, add the prawns, fish and sea cucumber, crab meat and tofu
Bring to a boil
Stir in the asparagus and seasonings
Simmer for 5 minutes or until ingredients are cooked
Slowly pour in the cornstarch solution while stirring the soup. Do not pour everything in at one go
Stir and see if the soup has reached the consistency you want
Remove from the heat
Beat the egg lightly and stream it slowly into the soup
Serve it hot and offer some black vinegar to go with it
Conch is used to refer to a group of shellfish. The shell is usually large with unique colours and design. Conch shells are great ornaments and souvenirs from a beach vacation.
Conch meat is common in Caribbean cuisine. The most popular conch dishes are conch soup, conch fritters and salads. Some of you might think conch is bizarre food. Well, it does looks strange. If not cooked well, the texture can be chewy.
But it is reputed to be cooling and therefore good for the sweltering summer heat. Check out some conch recipes here.
If you can find it at your local fishmonger, give the fresh ones a try. Otherwise, I believe there are canned or frozen ones. Here's one from Amazon.
Seafood porridge recipes
Fresh seafood also goes well with rice congee. Cook the rice porridge till the rice grains disintegrate into a a consistency like thick soup. The thick consistency coupled with the fresh crunch of fresh seafood makes a nice contrast.
Recipe 3. Fresh scallop rice porridge
Conpoy is the dried form of another very popular shellfish. Also known as scallop or 带子.
The dried conpoys adds flavour to the porridge while the fresh scallops adds ocean sweetness.
Ingredients
40g dried scallop / conpoy
150g fresh scallop
8 cup of plain rice porridge
1 tbsp ginger, julienned
Pinch of cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch of pepper
Directions
Wash and soak the dried scallop till soft
Wash and cut the fresh scallop
Marinate the fresh scallop with pinch of cornstarch
Cook 8 cups of plain rice porridge
Add the soaked scallop together with the water to the porridge
Add the fresh scallop
Cook the porridge for a further 5 minutes
Salt and pepper to taste
Recipe 4. Fresh seafood rice porridge
Ingredients
115g cuttlefish
115g fresh prawn
75g fresh scallop
1 tbsp ginger, julienned
6 cups of soup stock
3 cups of cooked rice
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
Dash of sesame seed oil
Directions
Wash and slice the cuttlefish
Wash and clean the fresh prawn and scallop
Bring 6 cups of water to a boil
Add the cooked rice
Add the cuttlefish, prawn and scallop
Cook another 2 minutes before removing from heat
Season and serve
Recipe 5. Seafood and miso rice porridge
Ingredients
150g fresh prawns
150g fresh scallop
40g miso
3 cups of white rice
6 cups of soup stock
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp chopped celery
1 tsp chopped coriander
1 tbsp chopped spring onion
Pinch of salt
Dash of pepper
Dash of sugar
Directions
Clean the prawns and scallop
Marinate with some cornstarch
Dissolve the miso with some cold water
Bring water to a boil and add the rice
Add the miso solution and cook for 15 minutes
Add the prawn, scallop and cook for 5 minutes
Stir in the seasonings
Remove from heat
Garnish and serve
Always use fresh seafood with these recipes. Be meticulous about removing dirt from seafood, especially shellfish
Seafood paste
Seafood can be added straight to soups or they can be processed and added with other ingredients to form new tastes, textures and forms. A number of seafood can be made into pastes. Besides fish, there's shrimp and cuttlefish.
Recipe 6. Cuttlefish paste
Ingredients
600g fresh cuttlefish
11g cornstarch
2 tsp salt
Dash of pepper
Directions
Ground the cuttlefish in a food processor
Mix the cornstarch with a little water
Add the cornstarch solution to the paste and mix till slightly sticky
Season with salt and pepper
Shape into balls or flat cakes for cooking
Recipe 7. Shrimp paste
Ingredients
600g fresh shrimp
6g salt
11g cornstarch
Dash of sesame seed oil and pepper
Directions
Minced the fresh shrimp till it turns into a paste using a good processor
Mix the cornstarch with a little water
Add the cornstarch solution to the paste and mix well
Season with salt, sesame seed oil and pepper
Shape into balls for cooking. See this paste used in this shrimp ball soup.
To change this shrimp paste into a stuffing, add 110g of fatty pork into the mixture. Stuff tofu pockets, egg plants, capsicum and fresh chilis.
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