Braised Abalone 红烧鲍鱼

Last month was my husband's birthday and I made Rice Vermicelli (Mee Sua) Chicken Soup with Abalone for him. I opened a wrong can of Abalone by mistake. That can of abalone was one of 2 given by his boss during Chinese New Year this year. It has a few pieces of abalone in a can and of better quality; obviously.

I meant to keep it for next year's Chinese New Year to make Braised Abalone. Haiz ... I guess Chinese New Year came earlier for us.

I didn't use dried shitake mushroom here. I happen to see really nice and firm fresh shitake mushroom in the market. I used that instead.

Chinese New Year is not too far away. It's in January next year. You might want to try this for your Chinese New Year feast. :)  I did another Braised Abalone a few years back. You might want o check that out to see which version you prefer.

Ingredients:

• A can of Abalone, drained
• a few Broccoli florets
• 2-3 Fresh Shitake Mushroom, stem removed and cleaned

Sauce Ingredients:

• 100ml Chicken Stock
• 2 tablespoon Abalone Sauce (I'm using Fortune brand)1/2 teaspoon Oyster Sauce
• a few drops Dark Soy Sauce for colour (optional)
• Cornflour Mixture as thickener

How to do it:

1. Blanch broccoli in water with a little salt add.
2. Drain and set aside.
3. Combine chicken stock, abalone sauce and oyster sauce and bring to a simmer.
4. Add in abalone and mushrooms
5. Continue to simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Add a few drops of dark soy sauce if you like.
7. Thicken with cornflour mixture.
8. Dish out and serve with broccoli.

Note:
If you prefer using dried shitake mushroom, double the ingredients for the sauce and braise the mushroom in this portion for an hour till mushroom softened and absorbed the flavours. After which, you can add some of the sauce used to braise the mushroom to the new batch of sauce to braise the mushroom.

Braised Chestnut and Mushroom 栗子焖香菇

I thought I have posted this dish before but I couldn't find it when I when I wanted to link this. Anyways, this is one of the regulars on our dinner table. It's simple to wok and healthy to eat. Can be recommended to vegetarian friends too! Just use vegetarian oyster sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 carrots, skinned and chopped in chunks
• 10 Chinese dried mushrooms, soaked to soften and stalks removed (retain the water)
• 8 Fresh Chestnuts, soaked in hot water to ease the peeling of shell.
• 1 bowl water
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
• Oil

How to do it:

1. After removing the shells from the chestnuts, deep fry them in oil for 30 seconds. This helps to cut down the chestnuts from breaking during braising.
2. Saute the mushrooms and carrots for 1 minute.
3. Put all the 2 vegetables in a pot.
4. Add in the water retained from the mushrooms and additional water if required to cover the vegetables.
5. Add in the oyster sauce and simmer for 1 hour or longer if you prefer your vegetables to be softer.
6. The liquid in the pot should be lesser than half and is thick.
7. Add in light soy sauce if you find it too bland.
8. Serve with rice.

Braised Chicken Feet with Mushroom 香菇焖鸡脚

This is the most adult dish that my son likes. However, he does not like the smell of the spices, so I don’t usually put it if he is eating.

Ingredients:

• 30 chicken feet
• 20 pieces of mushroom (I’m using small ones)
• Hard-boiled eggs (Optional)

Spices:

• Orange Peel
• Cinnamon Stick
• Cloves
• Anise Star
• Cardamom

Seasonings:

• 3 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
• 1 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
• 2 teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce

How to do it:

1. Wash & cut away nails on the chicken feet.
2. Marinade with 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce and 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce.
3. Soak mushroom in water till soft, remove stalks.
4. Drain chicken feet from soy sauce.
5. Deep fry chicken feet till golden brown. Remove & drain.
6. Add fried chicken feet, mushroom, spices & hard-boiled eggs (optional) into a pot of boiling water.
7. Add in the seasonings and let in simmer for 4 hours so till the chicken feet & mushrooms are soft.
8. You can add more seasonings if you find it too bland.

Note:
You can choose not to use spices and use quail eggs instead of regular chicken eggs.