Dried oyster ✦

Huîtres séchées

What it is

In Cantonese the dried oyster is ho see, close enough to a phrase for good business that the New Year dish pairing it with black moss reads as a wish for prosperity — which is why it barely appears on the table the rest of the year. Drying turns the shellfish dark, dense and smoky-sweet, leaving nothing of the cold saline snap it had raw.

In the kitchen

Soak them overnight, rinse, and pinch out the dark ring of stomach if you want a clean flavour. Braise them a full hour with pork belly rather than adding them near the end, or they stay rubbery.

Goes with

Pork belly Dried shiitake (donko) Oyster sauce Ginger Spring onion Garlic Shaoxing wine

Same species

Kumamoto oyster

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