Seafood and Kimchi Soup

My mother made this soup while she stayed with me during my recovery. She placed the partially thawed prepared green crabs in a few clean plastic bags and crushed them against a cement block using a rock from my garden. She agrees that this method works much better as opposed to crushing them with a blender.

my mother hand crushing the crabs

This soup is made with kimchi that I fermented months ago. They are more sour than the freshly made kind. You may purchase kimchi at your local markets. The mixed seafood package is from my local grocery market and found in the frozen section. Once opened you can rinse them in a strainer and add to the soup. If the mixed seafood has been previously cooked then it does not take long to reheat them. I find that this soup tastes even better the next 1-2 days!

seafood and kimchi soup

Seafood and Kimchi Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb prepared hard shell green crabs (about 20 adult crabs)
7 cups cold water
1 lb seafood mix, rinsed in cold water, strained
About 1 1/2 to 2 cups kimchi (home-made or store bought), cut into bite size
1 container of soft tofu (about 12 oz), cut into bite size
1 scallion, green parts only, chopped or cut into 1/2 or 1 inch lengths
2 Tbsp fish sauce (nước mắm)
1 Tbsp chicken stock powder

Method:

Place the crabs into 2-3 layers of freezer or plastic bags. Pound the crabs until they are crushed. Add a little cold water (about 1/3 of the water), use a spoon to stir the mixture and use a fine strainer to strain the liquid and the fine crab bits into a pot. Repeat 2 more times until all the water has been used up. Please see links below for tutorial assist.

Bring the pot to a boil over high heat. Do not stir. Do not cover the pot. Once the liquid starts to boil the crab bits will float up to the surface in pieces. Let the liquid boils gently for a few minutes (up to about 5 minutes) or until all the pieces are done floating up. Avoid allowing the liquid to boil over. Rinse the seafood mix and add to the pot. Add kimchi, and tofu and stir the pot once. Cook for another 3-5 minutes or until everything is heated through. Add scallions and season with fish sauce and chicken stock powder.

Helpful Hints:

*Please see Vietnamese-Style Crab Stock for a tutorial on how to make the stock for this recipe.
*Please see How to Prepare Green Crab for Making Stock for a tutorial on how to prepare the crabs.
*The 7 cups of water will yield about 6 cups of crab liquid.
*If you are to use a blender to crush the crabs then use only the soft crab bodies. Discard the hard carapace, apron, legs, and claws.