In this 2-for-1 video,
you’re not only about to learn how to cook scallops,
but also, how to cook asparagus, just like a Chinese chef.
My dad’s Asparagus & Scallops Stir-Fry
is a masterpiece he’s made thousands of times
in his restaurant days.
Let’s start with the prized ingredient, the scallops.
Hello, friends!
Everyone,
today is my granddaughter's birthday!
Happy Birthday, Mui Mui!
Okay, Yeh Yeh's going to cook for you!
First, we're going to put the scallops in this bowl,
and let them soak.
For our vegetarian friends out there,
you can just skip the scallops
and proceed with the rest of the recipe as is,
making sure to omit the chicken bouillon
and use vegetarian oyster sauce.
Or, as a "scallop hack",
you can cut king oyster mushrooms into scallop shapes.
These meaty mushrooms always make for
great vegetarian options for classic Cantonese dishes
that are typically served with meat.
This is boiling water.
1 cup.
Why are you using boiling water?
Soaking in boiling water helps the scallops
firm up and maintain their shapes.
It'll keep the scallops from
releasing lots of water when you're stir-frying.
Also, once the scallops have firmed up,
they won't shrink.
Add some cooking wine to combat fishiness.
Just a tsp.
It gets rid of fishy odors.
Add the boiling water.
We’ll add enough boiling water to cover the scallops.
This soak will help the scallops firm up.
Give it a stir with chopsticks.
Leave it alone and let it soak.
Set it aside for a while.
Cath from the Canto Cooking Club asked,
"What's the best type of scallop to use for this?"
You'd have a great selection in places like Hong Kong.
In American grocery stores,
you probably won't have a lot to choose from.
If you have access to fresh seafood, great!
Select firm scallops that aren’t dry or discolored.
For the rest of us, frozen scallops are perfectly acceptable,
since seafood is already flash-frozen at sea.
If you’re looking for sustainable seafood options,
make sure to reference the “Seafood Watch” website.
Let's prepare the asparagus.
We'll soak them while we chop up the other ingredients.
We'll cut the ginger into thin slices.
Triangles.
We’ll cut the ginger into slices.
Just a few pieces, not too much.
Cut triangles.
Then cut those slices into fourths.
Cut triangles like this.
Next, garlic.
Garlic.
Today, we're not going to smash it, we're slicing it.
Okay, Mui Mui, happy birthday!
Two cloves of garlic, trim the end.
We’ll trim and discard the hard ends.
Slice them.
Today, we’ll slice the garlic instead of mincing
for that extra touch of fanciness.
Carrot.
It's great for adding color, but you could skip it.
For decoration, carve it into simple flowers.
Cut triangles into the sides.
Cut into the sides like this.
My dad likes to cut little indents all around the carrot
to get an elegant flower shape when we slice it later.
Carrots are hard, so watch your hand and fingers.
All right,
once you've cut the triangles,
thinly slice the carrot.
It'll look like a flower.
Just cut like this.
Okay, Mui Mui, Yeh Yeh is cooking.
That's enough.
About 1 oz.
Cut the onion into triangular chunks.
Next, we’ll need just a bit of red onion.
Just a bit.
Do restaurants include these?
Restaurants don't typically include these.
I want the dish to be more colorful for this video.
Cut triangular chunks.
You can skip this.
If you're just cooking for yourself, you can skip it.
We’ll cut into triangular pieces.
Just a bit of onion.
Now, let's work on the asparagus.
We soaked it to wash it, so it's clean now.
After soaking, we’ll give the asparagus
a good last slosh in the water.
We're using about 10 oz today.
Then we’ll take them out and slice them up.
When we cut asparagus,
The ends are very mature and tough.
So we'll cut off the ends first.
We'll cut off these exposed, hard ends.
Discard these.
How can you tell how much to cut off?
A simple way is to break it by hand.
You'll see where it becomes tender.
You know you can cut it here.
Here, you can see where it's old and tough.
You can see the fibers.
Break it.
Another method is to peel it.
Peel the outside.
If you peel it here, you'll get rid of the fibers.
We’ll peel off the tough outside skin of the asparagus stems
so they won’t be hard when we cook them.
Restaurants won't peel it for you.
They'll just chop off the ends.
They won't do this nice peeling for you.
First, we'll cut it at an angle.
Cut at a 45 degree angle into 1/2-inch thick pieces.
If you're new to it, you'll cut it like this,
but we don't cut one stalk at a time in restaurants.
We cut it like this.
Slice down like this.
We cut several stalks at once, not one at a time.
That's how we do it in restaurants.
They don't cut one stalk at a time.
How do you cut several stalks safely?
Press down with your hand
and cut down and away from your fingers.
Shirley from the Canto Cooking Club said,
"How do you choose the best quality asparagus?"
When you pick asparagus,
look for tips that aren't too flared out.
If it's flared and flowering, it's old.
The ends shouldn't be too yellow.
Ideally, the whole stalk is green.
That's quality asparagus.
Some people prefer smaller asparagus.
You can simply cut thinner asparagus into shorter pieces.
With thicker asparagus like this, cut at an angle.
If you get asparagus that's soft (tender), that's good!
If the asparagus is hard and you can't even bend it,
that's no good.
Drooping's not ideal either, you want straight asparagus.
So, if you're not used to it,
you can cut it like this.
Just cut it at an angle.
To level up your confidence in cutting all kinds of ingredients,
check out our comprehensive masterclass on knife techniques
in the Canto Cooking Club.
To get access, check out club.madewithlau.com.
The asparagus is all cut up!
Now, the scallops.
We've soaked and firmed up the scallops.
They're nice and firm now.
So, what's next?
We'll take the scallops out and squeeze out the excess water.
This way, they'll release less water when we stir-fry.
We’ll take out the scallops and squeeze out any excess water.
Zach from Patreon also asked,
"Does the size of scallop matter?"
It's up to you.
Large ones are expensive.
These scallops are quite large.
They can get even bigger.
Do you cook it differently if the scallops are smaller?
The method would be the same.
If you're making it at home, the scallops don't have to be giant.
With a smaller budget, buy smaller scallops.
Oh, how much did these cost?
These were about $15/lb (USD).
Get paper towels.
Pat the scallops dry.
Set the scallops down.
They're much firmer than before, see?
Pat them dry like this.
Using paper towels, we’ll pat our scallops dry.
The drier you can get them, the better.
Once they're dry, put them back on the plate.
Mui Mui!
All right, now we'll make the sauce.
For the stir-fry sauce,
we’ll add 1 tbsp of oyster sauce, 1 tsp of chicken bouillon,
2 tsp of cornstarch, 1/2 a tsp of salt,
1/2 a tsp of sugar, and 4 tbsp of water.
Then stir to mix it all together.
We have all of these ingredients listed on our blog at madewithlau.com
along with step-by-step instructions and video clips
to guide you as you make the recipe at home.
Now, all our ingredients are ready.
Let's start cooking.
Turn on the heat.
On high heat, we’ll bring a pot of water to boil.
We're going to prepare some cold water.
This cold water is for shocking the asparagus
after we blanch them.
By preparing the asparagus like this,
they'll stay green and crisp,
Set this here.
Once the water boils, we’ll add just a tsp of salt.
1 tsp of oil.
Then, put the asparagus in.
Then we’ll add in all of our asparagus.
Once they're in,
they'll only take 30 seconds.
Don't keep them in for too long.
"How do you avoid making the asparagus hard to chew?"
The only reason it'd be hard to chew
would be if the asparagus is too old.
The most tender asparagus is young.
Tough asparagus means it's old.
We're going to add the carrots as well.
We’ll also add in our carrots.
We can just throw them together.
How do you handle the timing?
It doesn't matter, carrots are edible raw.
Okay, now we turn the heat off.
After about 40-50 seconds of blanching,
we can remove everything from the water.
Scoop them out, look how green it is!
Transfer everything to the cold water.
We’ll put them directly into
the cold water we had prepared earlier
to stop the cooking process.
Now, we'll pour out the cold water.
Then we’ll drain the cold water
and we’re ready for the next cooking step.
Now, with everything ready, we'll start stir-frying.
Heat on.
High heat.
As always, we’ll heat our wok on high.
Mui Mui likes to eat bread!
The center is starting to get pale from the heat.
You can see a bit of smoke.
That means the wok is hot enough.
Now, we'll add the oil.
Add 2 tbsp oil, we can use plenty.
Turn the heat to low
Turn the heat to low and give the wok a swirl.
Swirl to coat the wok.
Add the ginger.
Garlic.
We’ll stir-fry our aromatics until fragrant.
Lower the heat and fry until these are fragrant.
Then, place the scallops.
Now we can add in the scallops.
Why are you setting them down like that?
We want to lightly fry both sides for the best aroma.
Medium heat now.
You can't pour them in directly？
Sure, you could, you'd have to slowly arrange them later. It's the same.
Okay!
We’ll let the scallops pan-fry for about 30-40 seconds
before flipping them.
See that?
Golden brown.
Once it's golden brown, flip it.
See?
Pan-fry so both sides are golden brown.
Flip them.
My dad likes to use chopsticks to flip each scallop
to pan-fry the other side.
See that?
The aroma of garlic and ginger!
Plus scallops. Amazing!
It smells great.
Now,
we'll add the onions and stir them in.
After pan-frying this side for 30-40 seconds,
we’ll add the red onions and stir-fry everything together.
Fry them for about 30 seconds.
The onions are releasing their flavor.
Now, we'll add the asparagus.
Now, we'll stir-fry on high heat.
Stir-fry for about 20 seconds.
Bonnie asked,
"My scallops shrink a lot when cooked.
They're also very rubbery.
Why is this?"
They're overcooked.
I firmed up the scallops with boiling water before cooking.
Firm them up, then stir-fry.
Then they won't shrink?
They won't shrink and they won't be rubbery.
How much would this dish cost, this exact plate?
$20 USD and above.
Scallops already cost over $10 a lb,
and asparagus is also expensive.
At least $3.50 per lb.
Just the materials cost $20.
In Chinese cuisine,
asparagus is still considered an exotic Western vegetable,
not often seen in traditional Chinese restaurants.
While Chinese people have been eating scallops for centuries,
asparagus was only introduced to China 100 years ago.
Pairing these crunchy veggies with prized scallops
equals an auspicious banquet dish,
lou seon caau daai zi in Cantonese.
If you don’t have asparagus,
you’ll want to substitute it with a vegetable
that has a similar crisp,
like broccoli, celery, green beans, or snow peas.
These green veggies result in the same contrast
in texture and color as today’s dish.
After stir-frying with asparagus for 30-40 seconds,
we can add the sauce we created earlier.
Now, we'll add the sauce.
We’ll give the sauce a quick mix, then pour in a bit at a time.
Okay.
We’ll pay attention to how much sauce we actually need to add.
How come you didn't pour it all at once?
You have to see if you need it all, don't add too much.
This is fine.
Okay.
We'll add a bit of water.
If the sauce is too thick, it's not nice.
Now it's a little too thick.
How much did you add?
A tbsp.
It's not as good if it's too dry.
Okay, all set.
Now we can move on to our final seasonings.
Add 1 tsp of sesame oil.
Finally, we'll add a bit of oil to make it glisten beautifully.
1 tsp of oil.
We’ll give it a final mix before turning off the heat.
All set!
Heat off.
Incredible, right?
Maya, it's so good!
Crisp!
Let's plate it now.
Now we can plate our luxurious and colorful seafood and veggie dish,
making sure to feature a scallop or two right in the middle.
All right, friends.
Our Asparagus and Scallops Stir-fry is complete!
I hope you all enjoy it.
Hong Doy, Mui Mui, time to eat scallops!
Happy birthday to you,
happy birthday, dear Maya,
happy birthday to you!
And many more...
Birtday scallop.
"Give it to me!"
"I want it."
Good?
Mui Mui, you're eating scallop!
Delicious!
Mui Mui's eating scallop!
"Give it to me!"
Wow!
Yummy?
Yeah, she said, "I want the whole thing!"
"Let me get the whole thing!"