Hairy gourd, baby mussel and dried scallop soup with pork

Ingredients

Method

Fry the 淡菜仔 until fragrant first, then add boiling water. Add the ingredients once the water boils, with the 元貝 and their soaking liquid, and cook at a medium boil for 30 minutes. Dried seafood gives up its sweetness quickly, so there is no need for a long boil. The fast-boil method shows its results straight away.

1. Soak the 淡菜仔 (small dried mussels) and the 元貝 (dried scallops) separately for 15 minutes, and keep the 元貝 soaking liquid.
2. Scrape the skin off the 節瓜 (hairy gourd) and dice it. Slice the pork collar.
3. Heat the wok and fry the 淡菜仔 until fragrant (爆香, a quick high-heat fry to bring out the aroma), then add boiling water.
4. When the water boils, add the 節瓜, the 元貝 with their soaking liquid, and the pork collar.
5. Cook over medium heat for 30 minutes, season with salt and it is ready.

Who it suits

• families with no time for a long-boiled soup
• wanting a soup with dried seafood sweetness

Who should take care

• gout sufferers take care (dried shellfish are high in purines)

Soup stories

From a Ming Pao Weekly Culture interview with 黎淑慧, a soup specialist born in the 1980s who grew up in a dried seafood shop family. She says the two big obstacles to soup making for Hong Kong people are having no time and having no idea what to pair, and her answer is the fast boil. The drawers of a dried seafood shop feed a quick soup just as well as they feed the long-boil pot.

From the same family

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.