My First Time Cooking Abalone Mushrooms with Broccoli and Carrots

This abalone, mushrooms with broccoli and carrots dish seems to have become one of the staple dishes during Chinese New Year in Malaysia. We see it in restaurants or on the reunion table by homecooks.

It was CNY eve and reunion dinner. Each household had to bring a dish over to my husband's aunt's house. I wanted to bring a dish with some vegetables so I had my first attempt on this dish. The steps are not complicared after I studied it on Youtube but it was still my first try so I was very nervous.

Ingredients needed:

• Abalone in brine (or braised abalone if you prefer that)
• Dried Shiitake mushrooms
• Carrots
• 2 Broccolis
• Ginger slices
• Oyster sauce
• Abalone sauce

How to prepare the vegetables?

Cut the broccoli into small florets and set aside.

Then cut the carrot into slices. I attempted to try to cut them into flower shaped but I gave up half way. Still, there were some slices that were flower- shaped.

Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in hot water for at least 30 minutes to soften them before removing their stems.

When all are cut, next step is to blanch the vegetables in boiling water with some salt and oil to prevent the broccoli from turning yellowish.

Hahaha oops, I used a too small pot for the broccoli so they looked like overflowing. But I managed to cook and blanch them still in the end.

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Now onto a bit of cooking and braising the mushrooms and abalone.

Firstly, pour in the brine water from the can of abalone. With 2 cans, I had quite a bit of brine. I prefer brined abalone to braised ones because I want a simpler taste. My abalones are also in smaller size as I did not buy the very expensive ones. I like this size the best actually because probably they are bite sized.

Secondly, add in the ginger slices to remove any fishy smell.

Next, add in some oyster sauce and also the water from soaking the dried mushrooms earlier. You may also add in some abalone sauce if you have any.

After all the seasoning, time to add in the dried mushrooms!

Then add in a bit of corn starch mixed with a bit of water to thicken the gravy.

Dish out the mushrooms and then now add in the abalones instead.

Braise them a while before dishing them out too. I kept mine in vacuum flask.

Even for the vegetables, I kept all of them in different containers because I would need to arrange them at the other house.

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After they are arranged like a mountain on a plate, they looked like this.

Can you spot them as part of the dinner spread?

I think it was quite delicious and I made sure everyone could at least have 2 abalones. I loved the abalones and mushrooms the most!

If you are interested in Chinese cooking, try this dish too!