Sea Cucumber Sashimi

This makes a wonderful and refreshing appetizer, especially on hot days. Just boil rehydrated sea cucumbers till tender.

Then slice, chill, and dip in soy sauce and wasabi! Enjoy this sea cucumber recipe ^_^ Sea cucumbers are not typically sold fresh.

They're sold frozen or dried. We mostly get the dried kind and store them in the refrigerator.

Dried sea cucumbers keep for a very long time. Growing up, we "saved" sea cucumbers for special meals. Sea cucumber soup, sea cucumber braises, etc.

Because of how pricey they can get, and how much time it takes to prepare (mostly hands off time, but time nonetheless), I always thought of sea cucumbers as a fancy or special occasion ingredient. But it doesn't have to be that way.

One simple and tasty way to enjoy sea cucumber is to make sea cucumber sashimi. It is one of the easiest ways to prepare sea cucumber and it looks impressive.

We love to eat things "sashimi-style" in Hawaii, maybe because the weather is hot! One example is boiled and chilled okra, a recipe that we make often.

Okra sashimi and sea cucumber sashimi isn't sashimi in the sense that it's raw, but because it's served chilled and with soy sauce and wasabi to dip...like sashimi!

Here's what you'll need:

• Whole sea cucumbers, rehydrated - we have details on how to rehydrate sea cucumbers in the section below.
• Soy sauce
• Wasabi

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

Let's get cooking! Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the rehydrated sea cucumbers.

Boil the sea cucumbers for 45-60 minutes, until they are tender. The sea cucumbers should feel soft and have a good bounce.

Remove the sea cucumbers from the boiling water and let drain. Once it's cool enough to touch, slice the sea cucumbers to ½-inch thick pieces.

Arrange on a plate and let chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Serve cold with a side of soy sauce and wasabi for dipping!

Rehydrate The Sea Cucumbers

This recipe calls for rehydrated sea cucumbers.

How do you rehydrate them? First you start with dried sea cucumbers.

Rinse them under running water for a minute to wash away impurities. Then place them in a big bowl and top with room temperature water.

Cover the top (we just put plastic wrap) and store it in the refrigerator. Soak the sea cucumbers in water for 3-6 days and change out the water once a day. It's very important that you change out the water!

Otherwise it gets cloudy. The exact number of days you have to soak depend on the individual sea cucumbers and size. How do you know when the sea cucumbers are rehydrated?

When they reach three times their original dried size.

Clean The Sea Cucumbers

Now that you have rehydrated sea cucumbers, you need to clean them before cooking. To clean, work with one sea cucumber at a time.

Under running water, run your finger up and down both the exterior and interior of the sea cucumber to get off any gunk or white-ish stuff. It should only take a few minutes for each sea cucumber.

And then the sea cucumbers are ready to be cooked/boiled!

Storage

Sea cucumber sashimi is best eaten the day it's prepared, but leftovers will keep in the fridge for 1 day.

Top Tip

Rehydrate and clean the sea cucumber in batches.

We prep up to a dozen sea cucumbers a time and wrap them individually (make sure to wrap well to prevent freezer burn). Store them in the freezer.

The frozen sea cucumbers will keep 2-3 months in the freezer. When you want to use the sea cucumbers, defrost them overnight in the refrigerator.

And then the next day you can start cooking with them! Prepping sea cucumbers in batches saves so much time.

FAQ How do you store rehydrated sea cucumbers? If you're not cooking with them the same day, wrap the sea cucumbers individually and store in the freezer.

What can I do with dried sea cucumbers? From sea cucumber soup to sea cucumber braises and sea cucumber sashimi, there are so many things you can make. It's a delicacy but it doesn't have to be intimidating to cook with.

We'll post more sea cucumber recipes soon ^_^ How do you expand dried sea cucumbers? Simple.

Just soak the sea cucumbers for 3-6 days in water and make sure to refresh the water once a day. It's time intensive but not labor intensive. As long as you plan ahead, it is very easy.

For more detailed instructions, scroll up to the How To Rehydrate and Clean Sea Cucumbers section above.