Scrumptious Seafood Soup

My own creation. Sorta. In Malaysia, there's this soup called Sea cucumber soup, which is expensive and not home-made usually. I love sea cucumber soup so super much and everytime I eat it at the restaurant, I would be paying attention to what ingredients the chefs used. I would try to cook the soup at home, substituting sea cucumber for other seafood, such as crab meat and shrimp. I love it so much I can eat it everyday! Now, let's see you have a try.

Ingredients:

-- 2 sticks of artificial crab meat (usually in a packet, it comes in 8 sticks), chopped finely.

--6 to 8 large shrimps, deveined and peeled, cut into small pieces.

--2-3 shiitake mushroom, soaked in a bowl of water til softened. Then, cut them into small pieces.

--About a cup of ground pork.

--2 cloves of garlic, diced.

--4 cups of water or more depending on how much soup you want to cook

--1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

--1 teaspoon of salt, or more, to taste.

--Some black pepper (optional)

--1 teaspoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoon of water, mixed.

--1 egg, beaten.

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil on medium-high fire in a non-stick pot.

2. When the oil is warm (put your hand over the pot and if you can feel the heat, it's warm enough), stir in the garlic til they turn slightly brown.

3. Then, stir in the ground pork and stir-fry it til it's no longer pink.

4. Stir in the artificial crab meat, shrimp, and mushroom. Stir fry them for about 30 seconds.

5. Pour in the water and turn the heat up to high.

6. When the soup starts to boil, turn the heat down to medium and pour in the cornstarch mixture. Stir lightly and you will see that the soup has thickened.

7. Pour in the beaten egg and stir immediately and vigorously for a few seconds. Be careful not to spill or burn yourself.

8. Turn off the heat and season the soup with salt and pepper. If you use chicken granule, it's okay too.

Tips: 1. This soup needs your attention almost constantly. You have to be careful of the heat so as to not let the soup boil over. I had to remove my pot from the heat a few times because the soup was boiling over. to prevent that from happening, try cooking it at medium or medium-high fire and not let it boil too long after you pour in the cornstarch mixture.

Feedback and questions are always welcome. Happy Cooking!

Sharon ~