Seafood

Stewed New Zealand Live Black Foot Paua ( Abalone ) 

Ingredients:

- 4 average size (500 – 600 gramme) live Back Foot Pauas
- 1 size 14 chicken or 6 pieces of chicken, bone in with skin
- 4-5 slices of belly pork, with skin
- 2 thick slices of ginger, slightly pound
- 1 big spring onion, cut into 6 cm sections
- Water

Method

Blanching and scrubbing -

1.   Rinse the belly pork. Clean the chicken and make sure all the giblets removed.  If whole chicken is used, cut off the tail and discard all fats round the area. Trim fat and the loose skin round the neck. Cut the chicken along from the back or butterfly but do not take out the backbone.

2.   Prepare a large pot of water in high heat (or use a wok which is easier because of the wide opening) and bring it to boil. When the water is boiling vigorously, plunge the belly pork and the chicken in and let them boil for 1 - 2 minutes or till all scum come out and float on the service of the water.

3.   Take the chicken and belly pork out from the boiling water and rinse them under the tap, make sure all scum stick to the meat are rinsed off. Put them aside to drain.

4.   You can either prepare fresh big pot of boiling water or just skim the brown particles from the water in the pot and re-use it for blanching the pauas, but make sure you boil the water with high heat again. Put the ginger slices, the spring onion sections and  the Paua in hot boiling water and blanch them like the meat. This time, the pauas will give out more brown and white scum and the water will turn into greenish colour.

5.   Blanch the pauas for 2 – 3 minutes till you see the meat shrink leave a bigger gap between the shell and the meat. Take out the pauas and rinse them under tap water.

6.   While rinsing, hold the paua meat side up and poke your thumb into the gap at the shallow end of the shell, reach to the centre and separate the big muscle from the shell and pull the meat out.  It should be quite easy but if you are not sure whether you can master it, simply just leave the pauas to boil for longer and the meat will eventually come off the shell.

7.   Pull off the soft stomach pouch and trim the thin skin off round the muscle. Cut and discard the “mouth” of the paua at the thicker end of the meat. The stomach pouch and the trimmings could be used for paua patties or paua stock.

8.   Use a tooth brush to clean the pauas thoroughly, scrub the edges of the pauas and try to remove as much black pigment as possible.

Braising –

1.   Use a heavy bottom pot or a 27cm oval casserole or similar and line the bottom with the blanched belly pork.

2.   lay the pauas above the belly pork and put the butterfly chicken or the chicken pieces on top of the pauas. Make sure the chicken pieces cover all  the pauas completely.

3.   Pour enough water into the casserole to just cover the chicken pieces, bring it to boil and then turn the heat down to very low and simmer the paua for at least 6 - 8  hours. The longer the better.

Serving –

      To make it as an entrée, you can slice them into thin pieces and serve them in room temperature with or without the sauce. To be a bit more extravagant, you can serve them as Paua steak with a sauce on top. No salt or any seasoning is needed with this recipe and you could truly enjoy the unique taste of paua.

Method 1 –  traditionally used when serving paua steak

      Take the pauas out from the casserole into a frying pan and ladle 2 – 3 scoops of the braising liquid in at the same time.  Over medium/low heat, scoop the liquid over the pauas again and again (continuously) till the liquid reduced to the consistency of a sauce. Serve them immediately when ready. This method requires a big frying pan that allows you to work on the scooping.

Method 2 –  used when paua is served in slices

      Ladle the braising liquid in a saucepan while the paua is still in the pot covered with the rest of the liquid.  Stir the liquid in one direction constantly under the liquid reduce into a sauce and turn off the heat. Take out the paua and cut them into slices, pour the sauce on top and serve immediately.

     

Hints

      1.   The fresher the chicken and pork meat, the less scum will come out while blanching. That is why it is difficult to give the exact time for blanching.  You can stop blanching when no more scum come out from the meat.  Meat which has been frozen gives out the most scum. Do not blanch meat that is still frozen because you will lose the protein from  the meat.

      2.   You must make sure that the paua is always kept moist when cooking, that is why you use the chicken to cover every bit of the paua.

      3.   Paua is very prone to get burnt. That is why a layer of belly pork is lined at the bottom. You can replace the belly pork with pork rib. I choose belly pork because  it is a  nice dish on its own with the paua sauce after cooking, the meat just melt in your mouth! If you choose rib, the meat will all fall off the bone after long hours of cooking.

      4.   The liquid will also be prone to get burnt when making the sauce, continuous stirring will make sure the sauce won’t burnt.  Turn off the heat immediately when the sauce gets to the right consistency.

      5.   To get the economics right, I like to braise at least 4 pauas at one time because I could cover them altogether with one chicken. The long hours of cooking also make cooking 1 or 2 pauas at a time not quite energy efficient. If you have caught only one paua, try the stir fry recipe.

      6.   Braised paua could be kept in freezer for some time, just make sure you put them in a box with some liquid or even a piece of belly pork to cover. This keeps them moist   and the liquid could be used to make the sauce. Do not defrost the Paua in a microwave, thaw them slowly in the fridge or in the shade.

      7.   Do not discard the braising liquid, you could make multi use of it other than making the sauce: toss it on noodles, skim the fat and dilute it to make nice Paua soup etc. Just use your imagination. The leftover chicken meat still very rich of favour, put some water in and make broth out of it.

      8.   You could braise your paua longer than 8 hours, just watch out with the liquid. It is not recommended to add water to the liquid while braising, but if you have to, add boiling water, NOT cold water.