Shark’s Fin Melon Soup (aka Spaghetti Squash Soup)

Shark’s Fin Melon Soup 鱼翅瓜汤

I am cooking shark’s fin melon soup! NOT shark’s fin + melon soup, but soup made from shark’s fin melon, hehe … so don’t worry, no sharks were killed in the making of this soup. As you may have guessed, shark’s fin melon got its name from its resemblance to shark’s fin, a popular and really expensive Chinese delicacy. When cooked (right photo), the strands of the melon separate a little, which really look like shark’s fin, and hence the name of its melon. The good news is that shark’s fin melon is much, much cheaper! I bought a piece of sharks fin melon for only S$1.40. My mum told me that real shark’s fin on its own has no nutrition value and no taste, and the overall taste of the shark’s fin soup comes from its earthy broth of chicken, crab and other ingredients. This melon, on the other hand, is packed with lots of taste and nutrients … my mum swears by the health benefits of soup. If I am selling this soup, my sales pitch will be that “this soup is more nutritional and much, much cheaper than real sharks fin soup” =p

Updated on 29 Oct 08 based on readers comments (thanks!) ::
In Singapore, this melon is labeled as ‘Shark’s Fin Melon’ (鱼翅瓜) (or at least in the local supermarket, i.e. NTUC). The flesh resembles winter melon but the green skin covering looks entirely different.

According to Wiki, in other countries especially in the west, the other names of this melon are spaghetti squash (Cucurbita pepo), vegetable spaghetti, noodle squash, Spaghetti Marrow (in the UK) , squaghetti or Sharkfin Melon (鱼翅瓜). However, spaghetti squash and the other names may not be a 100% accurate translation, though it givers a good start. According to readers comments, the spaghetti squash in the west is sort of yellow/orange outside and inside. There may be a slight variation of breed from location to location … I see different varieties (from different regions) of winter melon in Singapore too and they look quite different. I think at least as long as the strands separate, the melon will have that ‘shark’s fin’ like texture, and regardless of the melon used, the recipe can still be followed as this is a pretty common way of making Chinese soups.

Ingredients
(Serves two)

- 1200ml water
- a small piece of shark’s fin melon (about 500-700g before skin & seeds removed)
- 200g pork ribs (or half chicken, skin removed and cut to small pieces)
- 2 honey red dates
- 6 red dates
- 1 tbsp wolfberries
- 1 tsp bitter almonds (optional)
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and sliced
- 1 sweet corn, cut to chunks

Notes:
- The key ingredients are pork ribs, melon, wolfberries and red dates. The rest are additional ingredients to improve the taste so you can omit them if you do not have the ingredients.
- Honey red dates make the soup very sweet. I added both red dates and honey red dates because I have both. You can add either one.

Directions

Shark’s Fin Melon (L: removing seeds with a spoon, R: cut into chunks)

1. Cut away the skin from the shark’s fin melon, scoop out the seeds using a spoon and cut the melon to big chunks (see photo above)
2. Blanch the pork ribs in a pot of water for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
3. Place the blanched pork ribs, cut melon chunks and the rest of the ingredients (except wolfberries) into a pot with the water. Bring to a boil, continue boiling over high heat for 10 minutes.
4. Reduce heat to a lower flame and simmer for at least another 30-40 minutes (and longer if you can). Add wolfberries at the last 15 minutes of cooking. You can also slow cook, or use a thermal pot (or whatever you have) to prolong the cooking to bring out the tastes.

For an alternative way of cooking this soup, check out wokkingmum’s version, whereby she added cornflour solution to make it more starchy and this way of cooking bears even more resemblance to shark’s fin soup. Very interesting and creative!

I’m submitting this soup to Weekend Herb Blogging, a weekly food event started by Kalyn’s Kitchen and hosted this round by We Are Never Full.

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Tagged as: melon, pork, red date, wolfberry