Abalone
The easiest recipe for the most luxurious lettuce dish you've ever seen!
Cooking Summary
Ingredients: (detailed list)
- Main Ingredients: dried shiitake mushroom, lettuce, abalone, garlic, ginger, corn oil
- For blanching: water, corn oil, salt
- Sauce: Kikkoman® Oyster Sauce, Kikkoman® Soy Sauce, Kikkoman® Tamari Soy Sauce, sugar, salt, water, white pepper, cornstarch, Kikkoman® Sesame Oil
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Top 3 Mistakes
- Burning the garlic:
Watch the aromatics closely once they hit the hot oil. Follow the recipe’s heat and timing, moving on when they become fragrant rather than letting them turn dark and bitter.
- Rushing the mushroom soaking:
Give the dried mushrooms time to soften before cooking. A quick rinse is not a substitute for rehydration; follow the soaking step so the centers are ready along with the edges.
- Recooking canned abalone:
Canned abalone is already cooked, so add it after the mushrooms and liquid come to a boil. Heat it through briefly rather than treating it like raw seafood that needs a long simmer.
Overview
Make your dreams come true with an auspicious lettuce dish! Both abalone and lettuce are heavy hitters when it comes to lucky Chinese symbolism.
Abalone is called 鮑魚 baau1jyu4 in Cantonese, and the two characters sound like the words for satisfied and having surplus. Then, lettuce, which is called 生菜 saang1 coi3 in Cantonese, sounds like growing wealth. You can see why this is a popular dish to serve for New Year's and other celebrations!
Thank you, Kikkoman!
This recipe is brought to you in part by Kikkoman. My dad has been using Kikkoman flavors throughout his 50-year career as a chef, and it's a privilege to get to partner with them on such an iconic recipe, Abalone with Lettuce!
- Kikkoman products are a major flavor enhancer and bring out the “umami” taste, and helps balance and round out flavors
- Kikkoman® Less Sodium Soy Sauce is perfect for home cooks who are looking to cut down on their sodium levels, without sacrificing flavor
- Kikkoman offers wide range of Gluten-Free Asian sauces, including Gluten-Free Oyster Sauce and Gluten-Free Hoisin Sauce
- The KikkomanUSA.com Chinese site offers easy Asian recipes that home cooks can enjoy any night of the week
You can learn more about Kikkoman and follow them on social media here:
- Website: https://www.KikkomanUSA.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KikkomanChineseUSA (Kikkoman 萬字在美)
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kikkomanusa_chinese/ (Kikkoman 萬字在美)
Ingredients
Why this recipe
Most abalone recipes online are tested only a handful of times. My dad used to make this dish multiple times a day, every day, for 60+ years and can make this in his sleep.
I know you'll love it as much as our community does! This recipe has over 183.9K views, 2.5K likes on YouTube.
Obtaining abalone
If you've never tried abalone, this briny shellfish tastes of its seawater environment. When cooked properly, it has a smooth, slightly chewy texture like scallops or squid.
It's rather uncommon to find fresh abalone. Most of the time, you'll only be able to purchase either canned or dried abalone. Canned is the most convenient version, and that's what our recipe uses. The shellfish is canned in a delicious liquid, and we make sure to use that in the sauce to enhance the abalone flavor in the dish.
If all you can find is dried abalone, the thickness of the ingredient means you'll probably need to soak it for about two days before it's soft enough to cook.
How to make Abalone
Since we’re using dried mushrooms, we’ll have to rehydrate them first so that they’ll be soft enough to cook.
First, give the dried shiitake mushrooms (1.5 oz) a quick rinse to wash off any dirt and debris. Then, soak them in a heat-safe bowl full of warm water for 30 minutes. The mushrooms will float on the surface of the water at first, so you can put a dish or other heavy object on top of them to help push the mushrooms down into the water.
Prepare the lettuce (1 lb) by cutting off and discarding the ends. Pull the leaves apart, then wash with clean water. If the lettuce seems particularly dirty, scrub those parts well with your fingers and rinse off the debris.
Set the lettuce aside to drain in a colander.
In a separate bowl, create the sauce by combining oyster sauce (1 tbsp), light soy sauce (1 tbsp), dark soy sauce (2 tsp), sugar (2 tsp), salt (1 tsp), water (2 tbsp), white pepper (0.25 tsp), and cornstarch (2 tsp). Mix thoroughly.
When the mushrooms are hydrated and soft, cut and discard the stems. You can use either kitchen shears or a knife to cut the stems.
Smash and peel the garlic (1 clove), leaving it whole. Then, cut a few thin slices of ginger (3 slice).
In a wok or pot, bring water (6 cup) to a boil. Add oil (2 tsp) and salt (1 tsp) to the water. The oil and salt slightly season the lettuce, help preserve its color and texture, and also give it a beautiful shiny gloss.
While waiting for the water to boil, prepare a separate large bowl of cold water.
Once the water is boiling, add the lettuce; you may need to do this blanching step in two batches. Blanch each batch for 40-50 seconds, until the green color of the leaves is as bright as it will go.
Then transfer the lettuce to the bowl of cold water to shock it and stop the cooking process. Let the lettuce cool down for about 30 seconds, then transfer to the colander to drain.
Time management tip: this may be a good time to open your can of abalone!
Pour the water out from your wok and dry it. Then, turn the heat to high and add oil (1 tbsp). Before the oil gets too hot (we don’t want to burn our aromatics), add the garlic and ginger. Cook until fragrant, or 30-40 seconds.
Lower the heat to medium, then add the mushrooms. Cook for 30 seconds.
Add the abalone juice from the can (but not the abalone yet.)
Add the lettuce to your serving plate. (If you feel too rushed now, it's also fine to leave it for now and plate everything at the end.)
When everything has come to a boil, uncover the wok to add the abalone (1 can). Once the abalone is in, cover the wok back up and cook for a minute. The canned abalone is cooked, so they just need to be heated through here.
Then, turn the heat down to low and uncover the wok. Add the sauce while constantly stirring the ingredients in the wok. Increase the heat to medium and cook the sauce until it’s at your desired consistency. Keep in mind that as it cooks down and thickens, the flavor gets more concentrated.
Add a drizzle of sesame oil (1 tsp) to finish it off.
Add the lettuce to your serving plate now if you didn't before. Then, layer the mushrooms over the lettuce, and arrange the abalone pieces on top. The sauce from the mushrooms and abalone will flow down to flavor the lettuce. Enjoy!
Presentation tip: Hide the smaller and uglier pieces at the bottom of the serving dish. Highlight the most beautiful and whole pieces of lettuce, mushrooms, and abalone by arranging them in the most visible places of the serving dish.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can you purchase abalone to cook with?
We recommend cooking with canned abalone. It's easier to work with than dried abalone, which you'd have to soak and rehydrate for a long time, and it's much less impossible to find compared to fresh abalone.
You should be able to find canned abalone in the canned goods section of most Chinese grocery stores, and also on Amazon.
What kind of lettuce can you stir-fry?
To help maintain its structure, we recommend cooking the crispest lettuce you can find. The crunchiest lettuces like romaine or iceberg will not wilt as fast as say, green or red leaf lettuces, so you can still enjoy its crisp texture after it's cooked.
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Made with love ❤️
We started Made With Lau to celebrate Cantonese culture and honor the legacy of our wonderful parents, Jenny and Chung Sun Lau.
Our hope is that these recipes and stories help you spread the joy, love, and nostalgia that I felt growing up.