My family's traditional Sea Cucumber dish

This dish is a must cook at festive occasions especially when the elders of the family are in attendance, sea cucumber (hai shen) phonetically sounds like hoi sum in Cantonese which means happy.

The hardest part of cooking this, truly, is in the preparation and cleaning work required for the sea cucumber. Cooking it, however, is much easier.

Every Hokkien family has their own version of this, but I for one love the slight fragrance the star anise brings to this version. If you like spices, try adding half a cinnamon stick to the cooking, it does lend a different complexity. (caution: less is more, adding to much spice may change the balance of the dish)

Ingredients
Sea cucumber (2 soaked and cleaned pieces)
400 grams pork (I prefer to use twee bak, which is the leg portion)
Dried mushroom (7-8 pieces, cleaned and rehydrated)

For searing the pork
Ginger (4 large slices)
Spring Onion (large sections)
Cooking oil (2 tbsp)

Seasoning
Salt and pepper (pinch)
Dark Soya sauce (1 table spoon)
Light soya sauce (3 table spoons)
Star anise (2 pcs)
Ginger (2 large slices)
Chicken stock (200 mls)
Water (200 mls)

Note: these are approximation as I like lots of sauce in the pot.

Cooking

1. Heat oil and pan fry spring onion pieces and ginger until fragrant. Sear meat on all sides on high heat briefly.
2. Remove meat and place into a deep pot for braising.
3. Add mushrooms and sea cucumber into the pot. Add all seasoning and bring to the boil.
4. Once boiling, turn down to low heat and cook for 45 mins.
5. Check for tenderness of meat, and other ingredients, and add 20-30mins to the cooking time if preferred.

As you can see, this looks really easy.

Some tips I discovered on the way:

1. Choose mushrooms that are not too large as they may not cook as quickly as the rest of the ingredients. if that happens, braise them separately for a longer period and return to the pot afterwards.

2. I prefer to cook the meat in a whole piece and slice them only after the cooking is done. It really makes little difference to slice before cooking or after, but for meat with less fats in them, it's better to slice after cooking to retain as much juice and tenderness in the meat.

3. This is a dish that can be prepared a day in advance, and actually taste even better the next day!

Try this out, and you'll soon be wowing your family with this popular delicacy.