Soy Milk and Sea Cucumber (豆浆刺参)
Ingredients:
- huang dou (黄豆) Soy bean 200 g
- hai shen (海参) Sea cucumber 5
- Yi yi ren (薏苡仁) Job’s tears 100 g
- Sheng jiang (生姜) fresh ginger 3 slices
- Hong tang (红糖) brown sugar: right amount
Cooking methods:
- prepare the sea cucumber
The sea cucumber is called "Hai Sen" or "sea ginseng" often sold in dried hard form,
preparing dried sea cucumber can be time consuming and requires a lot of work. After
removing the skin, you have to reconstitute it in water which is drained daily for 4 days,
occasionally wash it under running water, boil it with slices or ginger or
pineapple skin in between to remove the “fishy” odor, so that it expands to several times
its original size and becomes soft again. Drain and keep in the refrigerator until ready to
use. Not prepared properly, it can have a rubbery-tough-to-chew texture that can be
unappealing and taste wrong. As for fresh sea cucumber, expanded and sold soaked in
water, which can sometimes be found in Chinese markets, needs only a rinse and boil the
same way described above. The best kind of fresh sea cucumber is black in color, with
smooth surface and fine gloss.
The sea cucumber can be cooked in many ways - stewed with ribs, stir fried in black
pepper sauce, or boiled in chicken stocks. The rather bland tasting sea cucumber has the
ability to absorb and accentuate the flavors of the ingredients in which it is cooked with
and is best cooked in rich broth. The feeling of succulent jelly-like texture of sea
cucumber infused with the flavorful stock in your mouth is a must for food gourmet.
- cut the well prepare sea cucumbers into small pieces
- rinse the Job’s tears with 0.5 liters of water and then soak overnight
- rinse the soy bean and cook it in 2 liter of water then soak overnight.
- blend the soy bean with 2 liters of water to make soy milk
- use a sieve to sift the soy milk from the dou zha (soy bean segment)
- mix the soy bean, the Job’s tear soup, ginger, brown sugar and bring to boil, then
add the sea cucumber into the mixture, bring to boil, then turn off the power, and
serve.