Dried Scallops for Soup and Rice

Dried scallop is a convenient ingredient that can be used to make broth if you do not have any meat and bones at hand. Of course anchovy is another good choice but due to its uric acid content, I seldom use it in my cooking.

In this post, I would like to share with you two recipes that are interrelated - seaweed soup and pumpkin rice. I use the broth of the soup as the stock for the rice. In that case I do not need to add extra meat and the rice tastes as good. 

Seaweed soup with dried scallop
Ingredients: Dried scallop, Chinese mushroom, onion, dried seaweed, egg, salt, water
Boil dried scallop, onion and Chinese mushroom for about 45 minutes. Add salt and dried seaweed.  In a bowl, beat the egg and sprinkle some salt.  Pour it into the soup when it is boiling and turn of the heat once the egg is cooked.
Note: If you are preparing pumpkin rice with this stock, you should add extra dried scallops to be added into the rice. 

Pumpkin rice
Ingredients: Stock from the seaweed soup, Chinese mushroom, shallots, garlic, pumpkin, washed rice, salt, light soy sauce, sesame oil
Heat wok and add sesame oil. Fry the finely chopped shallots and garlic. Add Chinese mushroom and pumpkin. Stir fry for a few minutes and add rice, salt and light soy sauce. Continue to stir for a few more minutes. Transfer the rice mixture into a rice cooker. Add the stock and scallops into the rice mixture and set rice cooker to cook. Once it is cooked, fluff the rice and it is ready to be served. You can garnish it with Chinese parsley or spring onion.
Note: You can also cook it in the wok if you do not have a rice cooker.