Braised Sea Cucumber with Chicken Wings & Mushroom

This was my first attempt on cooking sea cucumber, although I really like it a lot, especially the QQ/chewy texture. When we went Hong Kong last Nov, I bought some dried sea cucumber since it's sort of a "must" to buy sea delicacies there. Well, not a must but it's hard not to buy when there's a whole street shops full of sea delicacies beckoning us.

All these years I've never thought of cooking it, as I presumed it was difficult to cook it at home. Actually, cooking this ingredient itself is quite easy, it's the preparation (i.e. soaking the dried sea cucumber) that's difficult. Luckily, my mum volunteered to soak and prepare them for me =D

I decided on a Braised Sea Cucumber with Chicken Wings and Chinese Mushroom after browsing several blogs and recipes on magazines. Came up with my own version as the recipes I referred to were either not what I was looking for or too many steps involved. I want a hassle-free and easy method given my time constraint in tending to the cooking.

Ingredients (serves 2 pax)

• 8 pcs of chicken wings, separate into winglets and drumlets.
• 2 medium size sea cucumber.
• 6-8 pcs of dried chinese mushroom, presoaked. Keep the mushroom water (200ml) for use.
• 1 knob of ginger, cut into slices.
• 3 stalks of spring onion, cut into long strips.
• 300ml chicken stock (I use Heinz)

Method

• Rub salt onto the chicken wings and wash thoroughly.
• Heat a pot with some oil. Once hot, add half of the ginger and half of the spring onion.
• Once fragrant, add the sea cucumber, stir fry for a few minutes then add 150ml of chicken stock and 50ml of mushroom water. Let simmer for a few minutes, dish up and set aside.
• In the same pot, add somemore oil. Once hot, add the remaining ginger slices and spring onion.
• Once fragrant, add the chicken wings, stir fry for a few minutes then add the mushroom. Fry till the chicken wings turn brown. Then add the sea cucumber, 150ml of chicken stock and 150ml of mushroom water. Let simmer till sea cucumber turn soft. Finally add some corn starch water to thicken the sauce.

Photo above was taken before adding the corn starch water (in my eagerness to catch the sunlight for taking photo, I forgot to add corn starch water).

For a quick and easy method like this (without braising in claypot or adding more ingredients), I thought the result was not bad at all. The sauce was quite rich with the use of store-bought chicken stock and mushroom water, perfect to go with rice. The ingredients also soaked up the sauce well; especially the sea cucumber which was chewy and succulent.

I still have a few more pieces of the dried sea cucumber, not sure if I should explore other recipes or stick back to this one. But first, would need to soak and prepare first. I guess got to seek mum's help again since I'm lazy I no time to do so :p