Seriously, I slice them super thin - about 1-2mm thick and pan fry them super-fast in small batches. You can really
experiment with the flavours that accompany them. I tend to do a batch of, say, chilli, garlic, ginger then a batch of just salt & pepper, then a batch of white wine and garlic, then maybe a batch with worcestershire sauce, etc. Of course, seeing as tehy are not so rare here, it doesn't matter if you waste a bit with a so-so combo.
I did a really nice noodle stir fry with some recently... so nice that I wrote it down:
Weyalan’s Abalone & noodle stir fry
Ingredients
4 or 5 abalone, in the shell, preferably alive, prepared as per instructions below
5 garlic cloves, chopped
1” ginger, finely chopped
1-2 large green chillis, chopped
1 bunch fresh coriander (separate the chopped stalks from the leafy part)
2 carrots, sliced into juliennes
1 bunch spring onions, chopped (separate the white
parts from the green)
6 mushrooms, chopped
1/2 a red capsicum, finely chopped
2 limes, juiced
2-3 tblspoons
fish sauce
1 tblspoon soy sauce
1 tblspoon palm sugar
800g “fresh” Hokkien noodles
1/2 a glass of white wine
4-5 tblspoons sesame
oil
Preparing the abalone
Put the abalone, in the shell, in the
freezer for a couple of hours, then shuck, clean and lip them. Slice the abalone thinly (1-2mm) and place in a bowl with the juice of 1 lime
Method
Combine the coriander stalk, ½ the garlic and ginger in mortar and pestle and pound to a pulp. Heat 3 tablesppons of sesame oil in a wok on a high heat. Add the white
parts of the spring onion (retain green parts), carrots, mushroom, chilli and capsicum and stir fry for about 1 minute. Add the coriander / ginger / garlic pulp and continue to stir and fry stirring continuously.
In a separate large pan, warm the wine to almost boiling. Add the palm sugar. When stir fry is almost cooked, add the noodles to the wine. Transfer the stir fry into the noodle pan. Pour in the
fish sauce, soy sauce and remaining lime juice Add the remaining oil to the wok and fry the abalone with the remaining garlic. It is best to fry the abalone in 2 or 3 batches so that you keep the wok good and hot… if you do fry in batches, you will need to split your oil so that you can add some more for each batch). The abalone will only need about 30-60 seconds per batch and can then be combined into the noodle pan. Add the chopped coriander leaves, stir well and serve.