Seafood Geda Tang (Light & Briny Home-Style Dumpling Soup)

海鲜疙瘩汤

Seafood Geda Tang (Light & Briny Home-Style Dumpling Soup) — Home-styleQingdao home cooking.

Ingredients

• fresh littleneck clams
• raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
• all-purpose flour
• Shaoxing wine

Instructions

1. Steam clams with 1 cm ginger slices and 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine until fully opened (5–7 min). Discard any unopened clams. Strain broth through cheesecloth; reserve both broth and clams. (Clams gape wide open; broth is pale gold, clear, and aromatic — no grit or foam.)
2. Bring reserved clam broth to a gentle simmer. Add shrimp and cook just until pink and curled (1.5–2 min). Remove shrimp with slotted spoon and set aside. (Shrimp turn opaque pink and curl into loose 'C' shapes — no gray or stringy texture.)
3. Whisk flour with 100 ml cold water until smooth. Let rest 3 minutes. Gradually drizzle batter into simmering broth while stirring gently with chopsticks — aim for rice-grain to pea-sized geda. (Each droplet forms a distinct, separate geda that swells within seconds.)
4. Simmer 4 minutes until geda are tender and float. Return shrimp and clams to soup. Warm through (1 min), stirring gently. (All geda buoyant and uniformly pearly-white; shrimp and clams glisten in broth.)
5. Off heat, stir in scallion greens and 1 tsp sesame oil. Taste — only add salt if broth lacks depth (most clam broths need none). (Oil creates shimmering ribbons; scallions stay vivid green.)