Fish Maw and Crab Soup (蟹肉魚肚羹, Haai5 Juk6 Jyu4 Tou5 Gang1)

Fish maw is the bladder of the fish that controls buoyancy. Fish maw is one of those weird and wonderful special banquet ingredients (at least in my experience) that is served at auspicious events such as weddings and at Lunar New Year. I made this soup with fresh crab meat for my family’s 2014 Christmas dinner. Fish maw can be purchased at your local Asian market or herb specialty store. If you’re lucky enough to have an Asian herb store near you, it’s worth going in to see all the dried herbs and creatures that are sold at these stores. The herb stores also have the most variety of fish maw to buy and with the prices to match!

There are two types of fish maw: dried and fried. For this soup dish, the fried version is used. If you purchase the dried version, like I did, there’s an extra step to deep fry the fish maw yourself. I actually shallow fried the fish maw, ladling hot oil over the fish maw (be careful when using this method). You can save a step and time by buying the fried version. The best description of fried fish maw is that it look like chicharrón, which is fried pork skin. The fried fish maw has to soak in cold water for at least an hour to soften it to a spongy texture and then cut into bite sized pieces. After soaking, fish maw has no inherent flavor (so it won’t smell fishy at all) and acquires the flavors of the ingredients it is cooked with. So the use of a good stock and ingredients is important to the flavor of this soup.

I was fortunate enough to prepare this dish while Dungeness crabs are in season, so I was able to get freshly cooked crab from my local grocery store. I used the meat from two cooked Dungeness crabs and that produced about 1 lb. (500 g.) of meat. If you’re not fortunate enough to have freshly cooked crabs available, canned or frozen crab can be used. Crab is not the only meat that can be used, and you can use abalone or sea cucumber as substitutes.

The soup stock was made using the Bone Soup (湯, Tong¹) recipe. You can used a prepared soup stock, but the taste of the soup is heavily dependent upon the quality of the ingredients used. So if you’re going to all the trouble and expense to make this soup, you should make your own soup stock. The last Chinese character in the recipe’s name, 羹 (gang¹), signifies that this is a thick soup. A thick soup means that a corn starch solution is added to thicken the soup. The amount of thickener added to the soup depends upon personal preference, but the soup should be thicker than a normal soup and not thicker than a very thick gravy.

Enjoy!

This recipe easily makes twelve bowls of soup and can be adjusted to make soup for fewer people.

Ingredients

4 oz.	115 g.	Dried fish maw (魚肚, jyu4 tou5); fried, rehydrated, and cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces
1 lb.	500 g.	Crab meat (蟹肉, haai5 juk6) – meat from about two Dungeness crabs
1 in.	30 mm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), cleaned and sliced into thin pieces
12	12	Dried Shiitake mushrooms (冬菇, dung1 gu1), rehydrated and cut into ½-inch (15 mm.) pieces
6 oz.	170 g.	One package fresh cloud ear fungus (雲耳, wan4 ji5)
2	2	Eggs (雞蛋, gai1 daan6), scrambled
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Soy sauce (豉油, si6 jau4)
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (紹興酒, siu6 hing1 zau2) or dry sherry
½ tsp.	2.5 ml.	Ground white pepper (白胡椒, baak6 wu4 ziu1)
3 Tbs.	45 ml.	Corn starch (粟粉, suk1 fan2)
6 Tbs.	90 ml.	Water
4 qt.	4 L.	Bone soup (recipe can be found here)

Equipment

8 qt.	7.5 L.	Pot
14 in.	35.5 cm.	Wok or pan

Preparation Instructions (One Day Before)

Dried Fish Maw (魚肚, jyu4 tou5)

1. The stock for this soup is based on the Bone Soup (湯, Tong¹) recipe, which should be prepared at least one day ahead.
2. There are two types of fish maw: dried and fried. The type needed for the soup is the fried version. If the dried version was purchased, the fish maw should be first deep fried in a neutral oil at 350⁰ (175⁰C) until the fish maw puffs up. You can also shallow fry the fish maw by frequently ladling the hot oil over the fish maw (be careful when using this method) in a wok. If possible, purchase the fried version and save a step in making this dish. The fried fish maw can be stored in a covered container at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
3. If using fresh cooked crab, separate the meat from the shells and store in a covered container in the refrigerator. If using frozen crab meat, thaw the crab in the refrigerator overnight.

Preparation Instructions (Cooking Day)

Fried Fish Maw (魚肚, jyu4 tou5)

1. Pour boiling water over the dried Shiitake mushrooms in a heat proof bowl and rehydrate the mushrooms for at least one hour.
2. Take the crab meat out of the refrigerator at least one hour before cooking.
3. Take the eggs out of the refrigerator at least one hour before cooking and scramble them in a small bowl.
4. Soak the fried fish maw in cold water for at least one hour. Discard the water and cut the rehydrated fish maw into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces.
5. Remove the Shiitake mushrooms from the rehydration liquid, remove the stems, and cut them into ½-inch (15 mm.) pieces.
6. Wash the cloud ear fungus and remove any hard parts from the fungus.
7. Remove the tough outer skin of the ginger and slice into thin pieces. Scraping the ginger’s skin with a spoon is a fast and easy way to remove the skin without wasting much of the ginger.
8. Mix the corn starch and water together in a small bowl.
9. Put the bone soup stock into the cooking pot.

Cooking Instructions

1. Put the pot with the soup stock over high heat and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce the heat to medium-high, add the fish maw and ginger slices to the soup stock, and cook for 10 minutes.
3. Add the Shiitake mushroom slices and cloud ear fungus to the soup and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add the crab meat, Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, and ground pepper to the soup, and cook for 2 minutes. Taste the soup and adjust the flavor, adding small amounts of the soy sauce at a time. The soy sauce can be omitted if desired and was not used when this dish was prepared.
5. The soup should not be boiling when the corn starch solution is added, otherwise the soup will become lumpy. However, in order to thicken the soup, the soup must be brought to a boil. So the heat must first be reduced until the soup stops boiling, then the corn starch solution added slowly while stirring constantly, and then the heat increased while stirring until the soup boils. Once the soup boils, the thickness can be determined. If the consistency is not adequate, then the procedure must be repeated until the desired thickness is achieved. The thickness of the soup is a personal preference, and should be somewhere between the thickness of normal soup and that of a thick gravy.
6. The soup should be boiling before adding the scrambled eggs slowly to the soup, stirring constantly. The scrambled eggs should break into strands if added slowly to the boiling soup while stirring. If you add the eggs too fast or don’t stir constantly, you’ll get clumps of egg – while still edible, the presentation is not as nice. Turn off the heat and transfer the soup to serving bowls.