Shark's Fins

Ingredients

• a gill of white sauce
• a good dash of pounded fried ham
• some fried onions
• ground mace
• cinnamon
• and soy

Method

1. 1

   Clean the fins and boil them in several waters.

2. 2

   Remove the flesh and keep only the fins.

3. 3

   Boil again and soak in spring water.

4. 4

   Add to strong meat and fowl soup with vegetables, ham, onions, mace, cinnamon, and soy.

5. 5

   Stew until tender and reduce the stock until thick.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Banquets of the nations (1911) by Robert H. Christie, page 47. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Shark's Fins.) Take the fins as bought, and place in a cooking pan, add charcoal or wood-ashes and boil in several waters. Then take them out, and scrape awav the roughness on the fins. If not clean, boil again, and scrape again until properly cleaned. Then change the water and boil again. Take out, remove the flesh, and keep only the fins. Then boil once more. Put in spring water, Be careful in changing water, and thoroughly soak them, for it is necessary that the lime taste should be taken out of them. Then put the fins into strong meat and fowl soup made with all kinds of vegetables, a good dash of pounded fried ham, some fried onions, ground mace, and cinnamon and soy. Stew three times till quite tender. Strain the stock, and reduce till it is thick and gelatinous. Dish in a bowl, placing crab meat below them, and add a little ham on the top.. The taste is clear and churty (neither tender nor tough) . Yu hsia (Shell Fish.) Wash thoroughly some mussels, clams, cockles, and periwinkles, then steep all night in water to drain off 96 CHINA (North- West) sand. Put them in a pot with a little white wine, a bay- leaf, nutmeg and clove. When the shells open, take out the fish and lay to the one side, strain and reduce the liquor to a pint. Put a breakfast cupful of very good ground-nut oil and six ounces of flour in a saucepan, and stir it over the fire till cooked, but not browned ; then mix in gradually one and a half quarts of white broth, and half a pint of shell-fish liquor. Boil the above mixture, then mix in two teaspoonfuls of essence of anchovies, one table- spoonful of soy, and a bunch of sweet herbs, seasoning with sugar and cayenne pepper. Clean and cut the soft roes of three mackerels into small equal-sized pieces, and fry them lightly in oil. Prepare and cook some quenelles of whiting forcemeat, and mix them with a little oil, and some chopped tarragon. Strain the stock, return it to the saucepan, put in the shell-fish, fish roes, quenelles, and some two-inch pieces of macaroni which has been partially cooked in stock, and let boil for seven or eight minutes longer. Pour into a tureen, and squeeze in a little lemon juice and serve. No mi chi chou. (Chicken in Rice.) Take the bones out of a chicken and steam till just cooked. Then take it out and let it cool. Cut it into thin slices. Take gelatinous rice which has been fer- mented with yeast and water added, and cook with this for two hours ; afterwards add the juice expressed from fresh ginger, soy, sesamum oil, of each a little. Mix to- gether with boiled peanut oil. Dish and add fragrant herbs 97 G BANQUETS OF THE NATIONS Yan ja Kwai. (Dough-nuts.) Put into a basin four ounces of flour ; make a bay in the centre, and pour in half a wine glassful of yeast ; mix the flour into it by degrees along with a little milk. Cover with a cloth and put it close to the fire for two hours, that the dough may rise. Beat two eggs, add a quarter pint of milk, a dessert- spoonful of rosewater, three ounces nut-oil, four ounces sifted sugar and a little grated nutmeg. Heat slightly and work into the dough. Now sift in four ounces of flour, mix lightly and cover up again, and let it stand near the fire to rise for another hour. Then put it on to a, well-floured baking board. If it seems too soft, add a little flour to it, but be careful not to add too much ; roll it into balls about the size of walnuts, and fry to golden- brown in boiling lard. Sprinkle with sugar before serving. San hsien shao mai. (Crab Croquettes.) Take the meat (inside and claws) of two large crabs. Put into a stewpan a teaspoonful of chopped onions, with half an ounce of sesamum oil, pass them about three minutes over the fire, add a teaspoonful of flour, mix well, then add the crabs pounded down, and a gill of white sauce

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.