Shrimp Soup with Sea Cucumber

Purpose:

To warm the kidney and raise yang； to benefit essence and nourish blood.

Material:

Shrimp (peeled and deveined)                       150 g

sea cucumber (cleaned)                                150 g

Ginger                                                         10 g
Cooking oil                                                  some     

Green onion                                                 some         

Note:

Refer to a previous post for notes on shrimps.  Sea cucumbers are available in dried or frozen forms.  Frozen sea cucumbers are what I prefer to use; they are usually available from Chinese grocers.  They need to be cleaned of insides (the digestion track).  Dried sea cucumbers are available from Chinese nutrition supplement stores; they need to be soaked before use.  They are usually cleaned of insides already.  

Procedure:

a.   Behead, peel and devein shrimps.  Desalt shrimps if you use the peeled and deveined raw shrimps from supermarkets.  Defreeze, clean, and cut sea cucumbers into shreds (one inch long and 1/4 inch thick).  Skin and cut fresh ginger to thin shreds.  Clean and cut green onion to small pieces. 

b.   Add cooking oil to a pot.  Add about 5-6 cups of water.  Bring to boil with high heat.  Add sea cucumbers.  Bring to boil.  Reduce to low heat and cook for about 1 hour.  At this point, most of the sea cucumbers have disintegrated into small gelly pieces.  Add ginger shreds and cook for about 15 minutes.  Then, add shrimps.  Cook at high heat and boil for about 5 minutes.  

c.   Add green onion and cooked for about one minute.

d.   Add salt to taste.  Ready to serve.

        

Comment:

The amount of water for the soup can be more or less, depending on how much liquid you like to have.  At the end of cooking, what you have is shrimps in a creamy soup of almost completely liquified sea cucumbers.  The soup tastes delicious when you serve right after cooking or after being stored in the refrigerator.  Microwave to warm up before serving.  Remember shrimps taste better if they are not overcooked.  Kidney in traditional Chinese medicine implies not just the organ, but also the vitality of the body and the reproductive system.  So, this soup is able to enhance functions of the reproductive system. 

Shrimps （虾）

Sea cucumbers （海参）