In Cantonese cuisine, one of the most luxurious and expensive ingredients is dried abalone. It takes time and patience to prepare, and is usually reserved for banquets and other celebratory meals. As much as I love it, I’ve never cooked it – I leave that to the experts. But I do cook a fair amount of fresh abalone, which is readily available at reasonable prices from seafood vendors.
If you can’t find fresh abalone, buy frozen – taken out of the shell and cleaned – usually from South Africa or Australia. Frozen abalone is usually much larger than the fresh ones in Chinese seafood markets, so you will need just two or three for this recipe.
As with most good Cantonese dishes, this one is very pure – it’s seasoned with salt and a little oyster sauce. It’s easy to prepare and cook; the hardest part is slicing the abalone horizontally into thin pieces, for which you will need a very sharp knife.
Removing the husk of the fresh bamboo shoot is much harder to describe than to do. Please don’t use canned bamboo shoot for this (or any) dish – it has an odd flavour, and the texture isn’t nearly as good as the fresh vegetable. You can sometimes find frozen bamboo shoots in supermarkets.
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