What are Chinese Dried Scallops?
Dec 16th, 2007 by admin
This is the second in a new series on World Foodie Guide called The Larder, looking at certain foods and ingredients that I particularly like. Dried scallops or conpoy are a prized delicacy widely used in Hong Kong Cantonese cooking. Traditionally, before refrigeration, a common method of food preservation was to dry fish and seafood.
They are expensive to buy – the cost depends on the quality and size that you choose (they are divided into different grades) – but they last for months, years even, in the fridge if properly stored (in an airtight container as they are extremely pungent when dried). You don’t have to store them in the fridge, but my mother and relatives prefer to store these types of Chinese ingredients in the fridge. An alternative would be to store them in a tightly sealed jar in a cool, dry cupboard.
You need very little for a dish – as little as a quarter or half a scallop, but it does depend on what you are cooking. Also, they are cheaper if you don’t buy them whole, but in pieces (eg broken whole scallops). You only need whole ones for certain dishes, otherwise you would have to finely shred them anyway.
Due to strict UK import regulations, dried scallops are hard to come by in Chinese supermarkets in this country. I saw a bag of really small ones at See Woo supermarket in Chinatown, London, going for an extraordinary £65. People tend to bring bags back from Hong Kong and hope they don’t get stopped at customs…
To rehydrate dried scallops, they must be soaked in warm to hot, but definitely not boiling, water, for about 30 minutes (it also depends on their size). Covering the bowl with a lid should speed up the process a bit. They should be soft enough for you to be able to finely shred them with your fingers, but not so soft that they have gone all pale and soggy. Remember you’re going to be cooking with them later.
You can keep the water used for steaming the scallops to add to the dish for added flavour, although my mother thinks it might be contaminated with whatever chemicals have been used to preserve the scallops during the drying process.
There are many ways to cook with dried scallops. My mother has a great recipe for Chinese tofu with dried scallops and Chinese mushrooms. She also adds shreds or small pieces to soup noodles, congee (Chinese rice porridge), steamed egg and other dishes. Basically, wherever she can slip some in. Dried scallops, once cooked, are deliciously subtle in flavour and really complement certain dishes.
They are also the key ingredient in my favourite condiment and cooking sauce, XO sauce (read What is XO Sauce?). My uncle used to make his own XO sauce with dried scallops, and it’s not difficult at all. But because the home-made version lacks the additives and preservatives used in the commercially made one, it tastes a little bland for my liking! Once I get hold of a few dried scallops, however, I will try and make XO sauce using Neil Perry’s recipe from Balance and Harmony – Asian Food.
You can also eat dried scallops cooked whole in dishes for special occasions like Chinese New Year. I have it at my aunt’s where they are braised for hours with other ingredients like black moss hair seaweed (‘fat choi’ in Cantonese), sea cucumber, fish maw and whole dried black Chinese mushrooms. The scallops are soft, yet retain most of their flavour. Up to twenty whole scallops are required for this auspicious dish, and we get one each!
Let me know if you have any great dried scallop recipes…
If you’ve enjoyed reading this, you might like the others posts from The Larder series:
Hi,
Well you know dried scallops are an essential ingredient of Chinese replenishing soups (tong). For Hakka and many Cantonese people, we often have soup after our meal to refresh, and to help as a cooling antidote to a condition in the body that we call “hot air” as a result of eating all the wrong types of food, e.g. fried foods. There are also medicinal soups for other ailments that use various natural and dried ingredients; these soup recipes are normally passed down from generations. My parents and in-laws make a different soup every night to have with their dinner. I find that my children’s health really respond to having tong often in their diet. Tong is not the creamy, milky soups that people favour in the west, but a broth liquid type of soup, which is very soothing.
Here is a soup I make regularly; a simple version I’ve adapted from my parents’ and in-laws’ recipes. You need about three large pieces of pork neck bone, which you can get from the Chinese supermarket or butcher’s. Put these in a deep saucepan and cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Then switch off the heat, drain the water and wash out the neck bones and all the scum that boiling takes off. Set these aside.
Take about two large or three smaller carrots, you don’t need to peel as long as you wash and scrub them. Cut off the tops and bottoms and cut into chunky slices. Then you need either half a large swede (rutabaga) or one small one or a medium green daikon or half a large one (again you can find these at the Chinese supermarket or, indeed, at your regular supermarket); peeled and chopped into chunky slices and set aside.
For the dried ingredients, you need about four or five large dried scallops, a handful of Chinese dried red dates, two of the larger Chinese brown dried dates, a handful of dried chestnuts and, if you have any, a few dried longan (dragon’s eye fruit). You can get packets of the dried ingredients from the Chinese supermarket. Put all the ingredients into a bowl and cover with boiling water and let that sit for about five minutes and then drain off the water. Break up the whole scallops into small pieces and halve the dates as this will bring out the full flavors of the ingedients in the soup.
Put all the ingredients – pork, veggies and dried stuff – into a large, deep saucepan. Put enough water in the pan, just over three quarters of the pan, but not full to the top as the water will overflow when it boils.
Bring the water to a boil with the lid off the pan and when it reaches boiling, put the lid on and turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer for about two hours. If less than two hours, the soup will lack flavour so it’s worth spending the time. When the soup is ready, you season it with a sprinkle of salt. Under season it first and taste it (with a Chinese soup spoon to get the full flavour) and you can adjust the salt to taste. The soup shouldn’t be salty; you should taste the sweetness of the soup and the salt just enhances the flavour. In Chinese, if a soup is good and just right, we say it’s “very sweet” or “just enough sweet.”
You drink a bowl of soup (just the liquid not the meat and other ingredients) after you have your meal. Wait about 10 or 15 minutes after you have finished, so your meal settles before you drink the soup; that way your food and soup will settle better. In fact, you could serve the pork bones with a side dish of soy sauce as part of your meal; you dip the meat from the bones into the soy sauce, the meat is very tender. The other ingredients get discarded after you finish the pan of soup. Generally a pan of soup is drunk no more than two nights before it’s discarded as it’s supposed to be made fresh every night. Actually, a useful way to use leftover soup is to have it as a base for soup noodles.
Anyway, I think making real Chinese soup is becoming a lost art to the second and third generations of British-born or American-born Chinese (or other countries) so it’s good if we try and get recipes from our parents and get them to show you how it’s done, and teach you about the dry ingredients, their proper Chinese names and what they look like and how to prepare. Rather than dismissing Chinese soup as too complicated, take too much time to make or we don’t need to drink it, why don’t you give it a go? Try to make it on a weekend when you have time. I assure you, it will be good for your health.
Be well,
Susan S. Cheung
Hi Susan! Thank you for this fantastic soup recipe. I was just talking to my mother on the phone last night about soups and she’s promised me some of her recipes after her trip to HK. It sounds a bit like one of hers (I love eating the pork). I haven’t made Chinese soup for years, but intend to be good and healthy from January!…Helen Yuet Ling
What is the difference between using Dried scallops vs Fresh Scallops in Chinese cooking (eg: Porridge/Congee)? Thanks in advance! =)
Hello John
Well, fresh scallops don’t taste of much compared to dried scallops, which are very intensely flavoured. You also don’t need much of the latter. Even one shredded into bits will impart loads of flavour to a dish. Often my mother will only use half of a small dried scallop! Being so expensive, they’re precious!
Hope this helps!
Helen Yuet Ling
How do you spot good dried scallops vs. bad ones?
Hi Eric
Do you mean good vs bad quality? To be honest, I’ve not bought them before. I’ll have to ask my mother next time we speak. One thing to be aware of is that there are fakes out there. But I don’t know how one would spot these either. I’ll find out more from my mother. Maybe the answer is to buy from a reputable shop. Where are you based?
Helen Yuet Ling
Hi Helen,
Thanks for the info. That’s really helpful. I had always thought that fresh food is WAAAYYY better than dried or preserved food. Well, looks like I have lots to learn…=)
Have a good week ahead!
Hi John
It’s just a different way of using the same special ingredient. I love fresh scallops, but dried ones make a simple dish truly amazing. Good luck and let me know if you find some to cook with!
Have a good week yourself…
Hi
my mother always put some into the soups she made. now that i am overseas, i try to replicate the soup she made, minus all the chinese herbs and dried ingredients. for example, i only put in chicken, carrots and white radish. the taste is there, but its just not sweet, like its missing something. so i called my mother and she told me to add dates, dry cuttlefish and/or dried scallops. i went in search of it, knowing it wont be cheap. i found packaged ones (100grams) for about Australia$9 and its about 1 – 1.5 com in diameter.
when i went to london about 5 years ago, i brought a whole bag (about 700grams) of dried scallops from my mom to my aunt. and apparently we gotta declare it? but anyway, the ‘red’ declaration part of the customs were closed, so i managed to give it to my aunt successfully! but due to even stricter restrictions in australia, we have to declare EVERYTHING. so i am not sure whether i should bring it over.
Lucky you that you managed to get them through that time! I don’t know if you do have to declare dried scallops when coming into the UK. I think they’re simply not allowed in the country, and I’ve heard stories about big fines if you get caught at customs (and you don’t get to keep the scallops either!)…
Hi all,
I’m just curious that for confinement diet, the Chinese always include rice or ginger wine in the cooking. However, when alchohol is heated, doesn’t it just become water?
Thanks in advance.
Hi all,
It’s me again with more confinement related dietary questions.
I hear people say that Ginseng (or ginseng related foods) should not be consumed during confinement. Is there any merit to this or scientific explanation for this?
Also, the Chinese believe that drinks made from Red & Black dates are supposed good for blood replenishment but Western methods say otherwise.
Please help. I apologise if I am putting this in the wrong forum but thanks anyway.
Hi John
Sorry, I’m no expert on confinement diets, so I can’t help, I’m afraid! I think my mother went on one when she had me. I’ll have to ask her next time we talk!
Hi,
No worries. Thanks for your responses anyway.
BTW, where are you guys? I’m in Malaysia.
=}
Hi John
If you’re in Malaysia, I’m sure you’ll find the answers there! I’ve only been there once, over a decade ago, but it was great fun. I’m in London – see About page for more details. Not quite as exotic!
I love everything about London! Even the weather! Only thing I don’t like is the exchange rate!
You ought to come over to Malaysia. There really is LOTS of good food. If you ever make a trip here again, do contact me and I can be your foodie guide.
You can reach me at jmloke@yahoo.com
The exchange rate must be steep for visitors! Which is why I should travel more. If I do get to Malaysia, I shall definitely call upon you. I do remember the food, and I went to a huge night market as well. My own foodie guide there, how exciting!
The reason you can’t have ginseng during confinement is that ginseng is classified as “Leung” (or the opposite of heaty). Since I am not a heavy believer of this heaty stuff, I went and asked my ob/gyn after the birth of my second child and apparently, these things cause contractions (similar to eating watermelon during your periods or in the first 3 months of pregnancy) and pose a risk to excess bleeding of the lochia for postnatal recovery. That’s the scientific reason behind avoiding anti-heaty foods.
In addition, if you’re breastfeeding (and this is according to the Chinese Herb guy whom I purchase herbs from), ginseng and any related roots will reduce breast milk production. Hope this helps!
Lisa – thank you for this, it’s very useful! I hope John will check back one day and read this too.
Helen Yuet Ling