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Hong Kong Snake Soup
Hong Kong Snake Soup is a traditional Cantonese recipe for a classic winter warming soup of snake meat in a pork bone and fish maw (swin bladder) stock. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Cantonese version of: Hong Kong Snake Soup.
prep time
20 minutes
cook time
240 minutes
Total Time:
260 minutes
Serves:
1
Rating: 
Tags : Spice RecipesHerb RecipesChicken RecipesGame RecipesHong-kong Recipes
It was late November and Snake Festival time in Hong Kong, vendors had fish tanks full of snakes, you picked the snake you wanted and within 6 minutes, a bowl of steaming and warming snake soup was presented to you. I saw what the chef was doing. Basically, catch skin and gut the snake, cut a few vertebrae and strip the flesh from the bones. Flash fry in a wok with some spices then add to a soup bowl with a generous ladleful of broth and serve. Simple, right… except that the broth was pre-cooked and it took a while to track down how to make it. Finally, I have a recipe I can present. Snake soup is known as ‘Se Gang’ (蛇羹) in China.
Ingredients:
1 stalk lemongrass
1 small snake
1 star anise
1 tsp ginger, shredded
Oil for frying
For the Stock:
1 Python
2 whole Chicken legs
2 chicken wings
1 Pork bone
5 Fish maws (dried swim bladders)
1 cup Black fungus
2 tbsp Ginger
2 Lemon leaves
250ml (1 cup) Dark soy sauce
Salt, to taste
Cornflour (cornstarch), as needed
3 Star anise
Water, as needed
Method:
To prepare the stock: Skin the snake and start shredding the meat so that you get thin slivers of meat.
Take a large pot, add the snake meat as well as the chicken, pork bone, fish maw, dark soy sauce, black fungus, ginger, lemon leaves, star anise, and enough water to cover the mixture and then some.
Stir well to combine then bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 6 hours, stirring frequently during that time and topping-up the water as needed.
The stock should start to smell good as it cooks through, make sure to check you have enough liquid and top up with water if necessary. If your soup is too runny, blend the cornflour with a little water and add to liquid to reach the required consistency.
After six hours turn off the heat. Your stock is now ready.
The following day, to prepare the soup. Take your snake, skin and gut it. Cut three or for vertebrae then strip and chop the meat from the rest of the snake. Pound the lemongrass. Put the stock prepared previously on to come just to a boil.
Add oil to a hot wok and use to fry the snake meat and snake pieces. Add the lemongrass, shredded ginger and star anise. Stir-fry briskly for about 3-4 minutes. Turn the contents of a wok into a soup bowl and cover with a ladleful of the snake stock.
Serve.
