Recipe: Chinese pork ribs stew with fish maw, mushroom, and dried scallops

During Chinese New Year every year, we would stock up on fish maw 鱼鳔 as it is a little harder to find similar quality ones to the one we like the rest of the year. You can read more about the fish maw that we usually get here. The fish maw have already been deep fried, so all you need to do is to soak them in cold water for 1 hour before cooking.

Chinese pork ribs stew with fish mar, mushroom and dried scallops

Using this fish maw, we have developed a recipe that we have been cooking over and over again in the past months. Why do we like this recipe so much? It is nourishing, delicious and best of all, it is easy to cook - it is a one-pot stew that we love. Usually we will add pork ribs, mushrooms, dried scallops, peanut, ginger slices, fish maw and even lettuce (that's our vegetable quota for the meal sorted). The stew is quite "soupy" (the way we like it), and it gets a lot of its flavour from the pork ribs and dried scallops. Another ingredient that we sometimes add is radish, simply cut them into 1-inch thickness and place it inside the stew at the same time as the ribs.

One-pot stew

Boil a pot of rice, chop up some garlic/chillies to dip with soy sauce and dinner is ready. Easy peasy! What's not to love about this stew?

Nourishing and delicious

Used my last batch of fish maw for this... we'll have to stock up more during CNY period next yr!

Pork ribs stew with fish maw, mushroom and dried scallops
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: 2 - 2 1/4 hours
Serves 4

Ingredients
600g pork ribs (ask your butcher to cut it into 2 inch lengths)
30g peanut, soaked for 30 minutes
10pcs mushroom, rehydrated
80g fish maw, soaked for 1 hour in cold water, drained and cut into 2 inch lengths
20 pcs small dried scallops
6 slices old ginger
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1.2l water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp cooking oil

To garnish

8 pieces lettuce

1 red chilli, thinly sliced


1. In a pot, heat the oil over a medium high heat. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 2 minutes until the garlic is lightly browned.

2. Add the pork ribs and brown the meat slightly. Then, add the peanut and mushroom and cook for 1 minute. Then, add the water and bring to the boil. Once boiling, lower heat to low and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Then, add the fish maw and dried scallops and cook for a further 30 minutes. The stew is intended to be quite "soupy". Season with some salt, to taste.

3. Arrange lettuce leaves in a claypot and ladle over the pork rib stew. Garnish with red chilli and serve immediately with rice. An excellent one-pot meal!

Note: If using radish, add in at the same time as the pork ribs.

Click here for an alternative recipe for fish maw with mushrooms stew.



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