Bay scallops and wood ear mushrooms in wine sauce (酒香鲜贝)

Last Updated on August 17, 2025 by Simon Fan

This dish is inspired by a popular Chinese dish called zao liu you pian (糟熘鱼片), featuring fish and wood ear mushrooms in a zao-flavored sauce. You can find the recipe in my cookbook about the food of Shanghai.

Here, I replace fish fillets with bay scallops. As compared with sea scallops, bay scallops are smaller in size, have a sweeter taste and more delicate texture, and are generally more affordable. Another tweak I make is to use Shaoxing wine instead of zao sauce (糟卤)—a fragrant sauce made by extracting the flavor of lees from rice wine productions—that might not be easily available outside China. You should definitely try the recipe with zao sauce if you have it on hand.

The juicy, tender scallops, draped in the aromatic wine sauce, pair wonderfully with the crunchy wood ear mushrooms. The nice contrast in texture, as well as in color, creates an elegant summer dish that requires minimal effort—all the cooking you need is blanching. It’s also great as a topping for noodles.

Bay scallops and wood ear mushrooms in wine sauce (酒香鲜贝)

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 tablespoon dried wood ear mushrooms (about 3 g), soaked in warm water until softened, about 30 minutes
7 ounces (200 g) fresh or thawed frozen bay scallops

Marinade
⅛ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon Shaoxing wine
⅛ teaspoon ground white pepper
1 teaspoon potato starch or cornstarch
1 teaspoon water

Sauce
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon white rice vinegar
¼ cup (60 ml) water
¼ teaspoon potato starch or cornstarch, mixed with 1 teaspoon water to make a slurry

1 scallion, thinly sliced

Directions

1. Drain the soaked mushrooms. Remove any tough woody bits and tear them into bite-size pieces.
2. In a bowl, combine the scallops with the ingredients for the marinade. Let marinate for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Remove them from the refrigerator 15 minutes before cooking to bring them to room temperature.
3. Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook for 1 minute. Transfer them to a colander to drain well, then arrange them on a serving plate.
4. Bring the water back to a boil over high heat. Gently stir the scallops and add them to the water. Make a quick stir so they don’t stick to the bottom. Cook until they’re just cooked through, 1 to 1½ minutes. Transfer them to a colander to drain well, then arrange them on top of the mushrooms.
5. In a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients for the sauce except the slurry. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then lower the heat. Give the slurry a stir and pour it into the sauce while stirring quickly until the mixture is smooth and slightly thickened, about 15 seconds. Pour the sauce over the scallops and mushrooms, and garnish with the scallion.