Crab Meat, Yellow Chives, and Long-Life Noodle Soup
As temperatures continue to drop outside during the cold season, cozy up to some soup that will satisfy your appetite and heal your body. This crab meat, yellow chives, and long-life noodle soup comes from Dr. Teresa Chen’s cookbook A Tradition of Soup. In her book, Chen promotes prevention-based nutrition and urges us to eat in accordance with the seasons, weather, environment, and our own physical and mental conditions in mind. Bring a taste of Southern Chinese cuisine into your home. Try this recipe while you can with fresh and abundant ingredients—it’s currently crab season in the Bay Area!
We’ve chosen a recipe whose ingredients can be found in most supermarkets. If you have trouble finding oyster sauce and dried mushrooms, try any local Chinese supermarket near you.
This is a noodle soup for birthday parties. The long-life noodle is a single strand of noodle coiled into the shape of a cake and lightly deep-fried. It symbolizes longevity.
Ingredients (Serves 6)
2 ounces lean pork, shredded
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
6 stalks tender greens (such as Chinese broccoli or rape)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 slab dried long-life noodle
2 dried black mushrooms
1/2 pound cooked crab meat
2 quarts chicken broth
4 ounces yellow chives, cut into 1-inch pieces
Directions
- Rinse and soak dried black mushrooms in hot water for 30 minutes, until soft, then drain. Cut off and discard stems and shred mushrooms.
- In a medium bowl, combine pork with oyster sauce, sugar, cornstarch, and 1 tablespoon of water and set aside to marinate for 30 minutes.
- Place greens in a pot of boiling water with 1 teaspoon of the vegetable oil. Blanch (5 to 10 minutes) until tender. Set aside.
- Cook dried noodle in 3 quarts of boiling water for 3 minutes or until it softens. Drain and rinse thoroughly with cold water. Set aside.
- In a frying pan, heat the vegetable oil, add mushrooms and pork, and stirfry for about 2 minutes, until pork is cooked through.
- In a medium pot, combine chicken broth with 1 quart of water and bring to a boil. Add the chives and cook for 1 minute more, then remove the chives and set aside.
- Place noodle in a big bowl and top with pork, mushrooms, crabmeat, and chives. Pour broth over and serve immediately, garnished with blanched greens.
