This dish is good to serve during the Lunar New Year holiday because it’s full of expensive, auspicious ingredients that are supposed to bring wealth and happiness. It’s not difficult to make, but it does take a long time, so spread the work out over at least two days. In restaurants, it would be made with dried abalone - which is extremely expensive, and not easy to prepare, but I’ve substituted fresh abalone.

Don't bother cooking this if you're not going to make the superior stock: it's a waste of expensive ingredeints if you use canned broth or chicken powder. You need a soup chicken - a larger, older hen that's very tough, but which, when simmered for many hours, yields a flavourful broth.

You can buy fresh abalone from wet markets but I prefer the larger, frozen variety that come from Australia or South Africa. If using small, fresh abalone, buy one per person and have the vendor clean them; for the larger ones, buy three or four weighing about 150 grams each, then slice them when they're thawed.

Chinese ham is heavily salted then air-dried, so it's dense and flavourful. For the stock, buy the cheaper scraps and bones, but for cooking with the abalone, pick a nice, tidy piece.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51ksLC7yqKloGeimrCqvMRomqGhnprApnnBq5iiq5WZeqKuwKWmp51dosK0tNGopqarXZiyrbHBq5itoZ%2BjfKK%2B06KapZ1faH11gJdxbg%3D%3D