Braised Sea Cucumber with Scallion

Braised sea cucumber with scallion is a signature dish of Shandong cuisine, taking rehydrated Jiaodong sea cucumber and braising it with cut scallions in a rich dark sauce until glossy red, intensely fragrant with onion and deeply flavoured, the crowning dish of any banquet.

The dish grows from the Fushan school of Shandong cooking; the Jiaodong coast abounds in sea cucumber, and Fushan chefs braised it with scallions to bring out its freshness and silky texture, making it the leading dish of Shandong cuisine and an emblem of Yantai as the cuisine's birthplace.

Usually brought out whole as the centerpiece of a banquet, it is eaten hot, the cucumber cloaked in scallion oil and sauce, best appreciated over rice for its rich fragrance and silky body, and was once a fixture of wedding and New Year feasts.

The intense aroma of scallion oil and the deeply flavoured, silky sea cucumber are the unmistakable marks of this dish.