Happy Mid Autumn Festival 2008

It's the Mid Autumn Festival or Mooncake Festival as many may call it. It falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar chinese calendar. To most chinese, we will go back to our hometowns to have reunion dinner and mooncake while 'moon bathing' with our respective families.

Same goes to my family except this year mom is working thus no celebration. But an aunt was kind enough to invite the family over to have lunch with them.

Nevertheless me and my bf decided to take things into our own hands. Not anything bad but we cook up a pot of treasure for the whole family (both side of the families). Previously when I went to KK in March, I had bought some sea cucumbers and abalone for our families and finally today we decided to cook everything in a pot :)

Chicken abalone soup with mushroom and sea cucumbers

Ingredients
1 kampung chicken
1 pack of abalone which I bought from KK (it consist of 10-11pcs)
3 big pieces of sea cucumber (which I bought from KK too- frozen)(soak it in water to soften it)
15-20 pieces of mushrooms (soaked overnight and sliced half)
a few slices of 'dong kwai'
a handful of red dates and 'kei chi'

1. Firstly we must clean the abalones. It's quite small in size. Not as big as those we eat in 'Ah Yat Abalone' of course. Apparently it's very hard to clean these abalones. U need a 'abalone scrub' to scrub it to remove the dirt sticking on the abalone. Those which I bought are wet abalones and not dried abalones. It's very hard to scrub away those dirt. If it can't be remove, trim off those dirty edges. Or u can try using baking soda to clean it. I did not try that.

2. Next, clean the kampung chicken. This is my first time cleaning a whole chicken. Although the seller already chop and remove the skin but there's still a lot of fats and internal organs of the chicken that need to be removed. It's a bit yucky when u stuff your hand into the chicken to remove all the internal organs. It feels slimy and stinky. Set it aside after cleaning the chicken.

3. Once the abalones are clean, stuff it into the chicken together with the mushrooms and the chinese herbs as well ('dong kwai', red dates, 'kei chi')

4. Put a pot of water to boil. Take out the sea cucumbers which are soften and sliced it. Set it in the fridge as it won't be needed till later.

5. Add in the left over of the abalones, mushrooms and herbs which can't be all stuffed into the chicken into the pot. Add in the stuffed chicken as well. Close the lid and let it boil in medium heat.

6. Once boiled, turn down the heat and let it boil in low heat for three and half hours. Add in the sliced sea cucumber during the last 45 mins as it will 'melt' in the soup. I guess the quality of the sea cucumber is not that good either. Add salt to taste when the soup is done.

Yes, it's that simple only. BUT, it's a lot of works to do especially on the preparation part. It was my first time handling abalones. Even my mom don't know how to cook it. So, this time I'm learning from Chef Steve hehehe

Verdict : The abalones is not as nice as those we had in restaurants. Can't complain much as we are only amateurs and I can't afford those big juicy abalones (these are cheap abalones RM 50 for a pack only). The whole pot of soup is very 'sin tim' (cantonese word as in 'hoi sin' that 'sin') The chicken is so soft and tender that the meat practically falls out from the bone. The sea cucumber almost 'melted' all in the soup. The abalones had shrunk to even smaller size. It is very chewy and not much taste. It's unlike those restaurant's where it is cooked for a few hours before it is served. For those who don't like the chewy tasteless abalone, sliced the abalones and cook a separate sauce to go with it. It taste better that way :)

I'm quite satisfied with today's pot of soup. I had too much of it till I can't eat anymore mooncake. But I did had some mooncake at Steve's place last night. The 2 of us enjoying our lil 'moon bathing' in his place while having mooncake and chinese tea. The traditional chinese tea with all the small pots and lil cups etc. He's the expert in 'kung fu' chinese tea. Explaining the art of making 2 small cups of nice aromatic chinese tea.
With different sizes of the tea cups, the tea actually taste different. The long tall cup of tea have a smoother taste while the round cup bring a thick taste. It's a very unique art of drinking tea which I don't know until now :)

Before I go to bed, wishing everyone a Happy Mid Autumn Festival!