A Fish Maw Soup that’s densely nutritious, using only 4 main ingredients. It’s slowly simmered until incredibly silky and thick, tantalising your senses with irresistible melt-in-your-mouth moments!
Fish Maw Soup - A Culinary Treasure
Our family often enjoys Fish Maw Soup during Lunar New Year banquets or wedding celebrations, but when Grandma cooks it at home on any other day…magic fills the air.
After your first slurp, the soup’s warmth wraps around your body like a cosy, heated blanket. It’s the one thing I can count on!
To some, Fish Maw Soup may sound rather uninviting, but for the Chinese and Vietnamese, it’s a glorious delicacy. There’s that heart-stopping instant where you THINK you’re just having soup, but then quickly realise that the subtly savoury broth is home to the most delicate cloud-like sponges.
You can be certain about what I’ll be asking for every New Year!
But to start off this year, I was stoked to find out that Wok & Kin – a culinary memoir of my family’s most cherished recipes – had been featured on Feedspot’s Top 20 Chinese Food Blogs & Websites With Best Chinese Recipes in 2020!
Let’s continue to add another authentic recipe to add to the list!
Is Fish Maw Soup Healthy?
Fish maw is simply dried fish bladder. Don’t let that put you off, though!
Growing up, Fish Maw Soup was Mum’s holy grail for beautifully youthful skin. Fish maw is known to be remarkably rich in collegen, which helps to keep the skin’s complexion delightfully smooth. It’s also said to assist with blood circulation when consumed.
That explains why Mum used to always encourage me to drink more of it and all the more reason to make it tonight!
What you'll need to make Fish Maw Soup
- 3L chicken stock
- 100 g fried fish maw (we get it from our local Asian supermarket)
- 500 g frozen crab meat, thawed
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 tbsp salt, or to taste
- 1 1/2 tbsp chicken bouillon powder, or to taste (affiliate link)
- 5 tbsp potato starch (affiliate link)
- 3/4 cup water
How to make Fish Maw Soup
On the night before cooking Fish Maw Soup, soak the fish maw in cool water to soften. The fish maw will float, so place a lid on top to push it further down.
You can change the water once or twice throughout the night to decrease the fishy smell.
On the morning of, drain the water through a colander and use scissors to cut the fish maw into smaller pieces. The size will depend entirely on your preference.
Bring your chicken stock to boil then add the fish maw and crab meat. Give it a stir and season with salt and chicken bouillon powder.
Combine the potato starch and water to make a slurry. As soon as the water touches the starch, it will harden so use chopsticks or a spoon to stir until it becomes runny with no clumps.
Slowly pour the slurry into the soup on a low heat and continually stir. You’ll notice the soup thicken as you add more slurry. If you’d prefer it thicker, make more slurry and add it in.
Gently beat the eggs until combined and turn the heat down to low.
Slowly pour the egg mix in large rings on the soup’s surface then let it sit for 30 seconds to cook before stirring the eggs in.
Tip: you can press chopsticks against the bowl’s pouring point for thinner rings.
Gather the family around and serve hot!
Try these Chinese and Vietnamese New Year dishes
Fish Maw Soup
Ingredients
- 3 L chicken stock
- 100 g fried fish maw (we get it from our local Asian supermarket)
- 500 g frozen crab meat (thawed)
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 tbsp salt (or to taste)
- 1 1/2 tbsp chicken bouillon powder
- 5 tbsp potato starch
- 3/4 cup water
Instructions
- On the night before cooking Fish Maw Soup, soak the fish maw in cool water to soften. The fish maw will float, so place a lid on top to push it further down. Change the water once or twice throughout the night to decrease the fishy smell.
- On the morning of, drain the water through a colander and use scissors to cut the fish maw into smaller pieces.
- Bring your chicken stock to boil then add the fish maw and crab meat. Give it a stir and season with salt and chicken bouillon powder. Let it cook on a low-medium heat for 20 minutes.
- Combine the potato starch and water to make a slurry. As soon as the water touches the starch, it will harden so use chopsticks or a spoon to stir until it becomes runny with no clumps.
- Slowly pour the slurry into the soup on a low heat and continually stir.
- Gently beat the eggs until combined and turn the heat down to low.
- Slowly pour the egg mix in large rings on the soup’s surface then let it sit for 30 seconds to cook before stirring the eggs in.
- Gather the family around and serve hot!
SHARE YOUR CREATION!
If you recreated this authentic recipe, I’d love to see it! Tag @wokandkin on Instagram with the hashtag #wokandkin! See you there!
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What an absolutely delicious looking fish stew recipe! Can’t wait to try.
Thanks, Vicky!
This soup is so nourishing and perfect for Chinese New Year! Thanks for sharing!
It certainly is! Thanks, Emily!
How many eggs do you use for your recipe?
Hi, Martin! I used 3 for this recipe. Thanks for asking because I didn’t realize it wasn’t included in the recipe card. I’ve updated that now!
I actually love this soup. It is full of flavor and fairly easy to make. Don’t knock it till you try it.
I love this soup too! It’s so comforting!
I love this soup. My Mom used to prepare this to celebrate Chinese New Year. Now I can make it too. 🙂
Glad you can now make it and drink something your Mum used to make! Perfect for the Chinese New Year!
I’ve never tried fish maw, but I will make sure to pick it up now. This looks great!
I hope you like it! It’s wonderful to try at least once!
Used to have Fish Maw soup late at night after a night out! Really excited to try the recipe. Do you serve with Chili Oil, or any spice on the side?
What a great way to end the night, Liz! For Cantonese people, we like to serve it with red vinegar. You’d pour a tsp or more into your bowl and mix it in to enjoy 😀
Cool! Another dish to make in place of sharksfin for CNY.
I normally would add ginger for any fish dish (seafood).
For the fishmaw there is the baked or the fried ones. I prefer baked ones cos less oily when I soak it 30mins with hot water to soften & remove the oil as much as possible twice.
Was wondering why you didn’t garnish with chinese parsley, coriander or cilantro.
I would add a dash of sesame oil & white pepper powder.
I am into eggdrop & seaweed soup & may experiment with adding fishmaw 1st round, addon crabmeat 2nd round & addon both for 3rd round to see which I prefer.
I’ve never tried baked fish maw, but I’ll keep an eye out for them! I normally prefer to have the soup with just red vinegar and pepper but different families like to have different garnishes 🙂 I hope your fish may experiments turn out well!
Can you provide a recipe for sharkfin soup? (imitation, of course)
I can definitely write up a recipe for imitation shark fin soup, Roger 🙂 I’ll add it to my to-make list!
This is great! But how long do you cook the fish maw and crab meat before you pour the slurry? The only time mentioned was the 30s egg =)
Hi, Jay! Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve adjusted the recipe so that you’re cooking the fish maw and crab meat for about 20 minutes.
Thanks so much! I tried it and I love it! Cheers
Hi, Jay! Glad it worked out for you! 😀