Fish

Abalone

Abalone are large marine snails (Haliotis spp.) with a single ear-shaped shell lined in mother-of-pearl and a broad muscular foot of firm, sweet meat. Wild stocks are tightly managed or closed in many regions; farmed abalone now supplies most restaurants. Texture is dense and steak-like—tender when pounded or long-simmered, rubbery if flash-boiled carelessly. Blacklip, greenlip, red, and New Zealand pāua each have slightly different sweetness and colour. Slice thin for sashimi or hotpot, pound and fry as steaks, braise in soy-oyster sauces, or use dried abalone for banquet soups after long rehydration. Canned abalone is a pantry luxury in Chinese cookery. Never overcook thin slices; for steaks, tenderise mechanically and cook hot and fast or low and slow—nothing in between.

Also known as: 鲍鱼, Awabi, Pāua, Abalone, Abalone