Thursday, December 23, 2010

How to prepare dried sea cucumber

Hubby bought dried sea cucumber from Dalian China. A delicacy and supposing very expensive in Singapore as this is the spiky one. Costs around $10 each, but after proper treatment, i can see why its worth the money...

His Dalian colleagues recommended this brand and they went to carrefour Dalian to buy. Buy it anywhere else, beware of fakes! They have instructions on how to prepare the cucumbers and even recipes too!
http://www.xiaoqin.com.cn/service_info.asp?SId=28

Its amazing how much it can 'grow'...

Dried form














After soaking in water (in the fridge) for 3-4 days. Water needs to be changed daily.


 












Before cooking, cut open the tummy side of the sea cucmber, remove the intestines and the sandy dirt near the 'mouth'. Fairly simple. When in doubt, simply remove any suspicious looking stuff inside.

The cooking process is pretty tedious.
Place in pot with water covering the sea cucumber for at least 10 cm.
Cook for 40 mins, off heat and simmer for 30 mins.
Cook for 30 mins, off heat and simmer for 25 mins.
Press sea cucumber to ensure its soften throughout.
Cook and simmer again if u can feel hardness. The time can be adjusted accordingly.
its 70% done now.

Place in ice water, put into the fridge for 2-3 days. Change water daily.
This is the end product. Ready to be stored in the freezer if not consuming immediately.














Isnt it amazing?! This is almost ready to eat.

i cooked it 2 ways so far. First is in a soup. Double boil 2 sea cucumber with about 5 dried scallops, 2 dried oyster, 2 dried mushroom. Cook for 30-45 mins. The soup is starchy and rich but the sea cucumber is pretty much dissolved and we cant taste the crunch.

Second time, i had some soya sauce gravy from braised duck. So i added water to the gravy, again add  dried scallops, dried oyster and dried mushroom. Braise the sauce for 20-30 mins until the dried stuff are soft and all flavours released. Add sea cucumber and cook for another 5-10 mins. The sea cucumber will remain chewy to the bite and be infused with the savory sauce. Yum!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

gd, was wondering why my sea cucumber grow up but still hard through out.. think i didnt do enuff cooking, then simmer, then cook then simmer. *cycle repeat again*

thks