Shark Fin and Fish Maw Soup (with or without shark fin) (鱼翅/鱼瓢羹)

Many people may have different feelings about eating shark fin. Well, cooking this soup without the shark fin doesn’t really change the taste a lot except there is no bite on the cartilage.  Hence exclude the shark fins if you like.

Ingredients

1. 1 litre stock (chicken stock)
2. 1 bowl cooked crab meat (or 2 crabs steamed and strip out the meat),
3. 5-10 sticks bamboo fungus (竹笙)
4. 1 bunch of golden mushroom (jin zhen gu, 金针菇)
5. 1 bowl fish maw (pre-soak)
6. pre-soak shark fin (optional)
7. 5 tablespoon sweet potato flour (蕃薯粉)
8. salt
9. optional condiment (black vinegar, light soya sauce, brandy, pepper)
10. optional 1 egg

Method

1. If using shark fin (pre-soak), boil with water for 10 mins.  Remove and soak in cold water until cool, drain and set aside.
2. Soak bamboo fungus till soft, cut away the hard ends, wash and cut into small pieces
3. Soak fish maw till soft, wash and cut into small pieces.
4. Cut away and discard away the bottom roots portion of the golden mushroom, set aside.
5. Bring the stock to boil. Add in fish maw, golden mushroom and bamboo fungus and simmer for 15 mins.
6. Mix sweet potato flour with ½ bowl water until well mix, strain, and pour slowly into the boiling stock, and keep stirring the stock till thickens to the consistency that you like, then stop adding the sweet potato flour (ok to have some left behind and discard)
7. Add salt to taste.
8. Add in crab meat and shark fin, allow to boil for 1 min.
9. If adding egg (this is usually added for making the soup seems to have more ingredients), beat the eggs with some sweet potato flour mixture you prepare earlier, pour into soup slowly and stirring the soup at the same time so that the eggs will cook into fine strips (蛋花) and not lump together
10. Serve with the optional condiments the bowl.