In their natural state - gracefully or threateningly pulsating a dome, drawn by winds and ocean currents, jellyfish bear little resemblance to potential food.

Eating jellyfish and comb jelly meat, jellyfish and comb jelly dishes, jellyfish salad recipe. Extreme cuisine.

Like many other food sources, in addition to being unattractive in appearance, many species of jellyfish have a deservedly bad reputation for not being too supportive of humans, capable, in particular, of spoiling the indiscreet bather's pleasure from interacting with the gentle sea.

Jellyfish have lived on Earth for more than 650 million years, that is, they appeared even before dinosaurs and sharks. Someone may notice that over the years they have not been very successful in developing their abilities. Jellyfish are a bag of jelly. The similarity of the skin contains a gelatinous substance with a content of more than 95% water. The human body, one of the most "watery" creatures in the world, consists of only seventy-odd percent water. Jellyfish have no heart, brain, or bones. All that makes it a single organism is muscle fibers. The stomach is directly connected to the mouth, the only opening in the body. This means that through it, not only food is introduced, but also waste products are removed.

The mouth of the jellyfish is also used to move, first filling the stomach with water, and then pushing it in the opposite direction to the movement. Favorite food - small drifting creatures, collectively referred to as zooplankton, including other jellyfish, fish fry, juvenile seahorses and crustacean larvae. There are about 200 species of these creatures - from the tiny, spherical thimble jellyfish of the Caribbean Sea to the arctic "lion's mane" with an umbrella diameter of about 2.7 meters and tentacles half a football field. These coelenterates owe their name to the external resemblance to the character of ancient Greek mythology Medusa the Gorgon.

The tentacles, with the help of which jellyfish paralyze prey and move it to the mouth, can cause certain troubles to a person. A small "Portuguese boat" - a jellyfish with a scarlet sack floating on the surface of the ocean and, like a sail, catching the wind, and with tentacles stretching after, emitting a bluish light, is able to bring more trouble to swimmers, painfully stinging with its stinging cells. The toxins of the Australian box jellyfish are stronger than the venom of the cobra and can cause death in a matter of minutes. According to statistics, jellyfish kill more people than white shark. Unsurprisingly, many people don't take jellyfish as food.

But let's go beyond the undivided domination of the Euro-American menu and go to Asia, where jellyfish are found in no less abundance than on the beach after a storm. They can be found in restaurants from Tokyo to San Francisco and Lima, usually in Japanese, less often in Chinese. According to economic reports, in 1997, only Tokyo wholesalers sold about 360 tons of edible jellyfish and comb jelly. I was treated to a salad with jellyfish even on some flights of Asian airlines. What is usually surprising, apart from the appearance of jellyfish and their questionable reputation, is that they are devoid of taste. Absolutely.

If they are served, say, without liquid soy sauce or sesame oil, not in a salad with chicken or fish and vegetables, then the question will inevitably arise: is this food? It's like chewing gum, some argue. On the other hand, the viscous, cartilaginous structure of jellyfish is just what attracts. It's no secret that many products only benefit from the unusual tactile sensations when used. In addition, jellyfish are a source of fat-free proteins such as albumin, egg white protein, and their tissues are rich in vitamins A and B.

Like many other exotic foods - from snake meat to bird nest soup, jellyfish are considered in the East as a source of longevity, a remedy for common diseases and are currently being tested in reputable clinics and laboratories for possible use in the treatment of cancer. Jellyfish and ctenophores are also appreciated by the inhabitants of most of the Pacific islands. In Samoa, they are salted, and on the Gilbert Islands, even the very poisonous jellyfish, called sea wasps, are considered a delicacy. Their ovaries are dried and fried in, claiming that they taste very much like a tripe.

The sight of jellyfish in their natural state is really confusing, but so are many other great food sources. Caught jellyfish (the largest suppliers are Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines) have their tentacles removed, the rest dried, and as a result they look no more intimidating than dried mushrooms. "Umbrellas" of the most popular types reach 37-50 centimeters in diameter and are sold dried in packs of 450 grams. Preliminary preparation involves soaking for about 8 hours in three or four changes of water. Next, the swollen product is quickly doused with boiling water and washed with cold water, after which it is thinly sliced.

“It’s an annoyance for some people and a delicacy for others,” said the Apalachian Development Planning Board headquarters in Blounstown, Florida, announcing the decision to begin the first industrial harvesting of jellyfish in the state’s history in 1997. The Asian market for this delicacy is expanding, he said, and the Florida fishing industry, like any other, is also forced to expand its scope of activities. Georgia became the second state after Florida in this respect. The state's revenue-generating shrimp catch was dwindling, and in 2003 jellyfish were chosen, albeit reluctantly, as a panacea.

For George Murrah, head of the local Shrimp Fishing Association, the decision to fish jellyfish was an act of desperation.

"If the prices of shrimp were kept at a level that ensures our survival, we would never switch to jellyfish."

The favorable attitude to jellyfish by the professor of food technology at the University of Georgia Yao Wen Huang has been the object of much ridicule, but since his childhood in Taiwan, the professor knew that jellyfish is a quality product, valued for its high collagen content, which is believed to be prevents the development of arthritis, gout and hypertension. The only thing that needed to be done was to shorten the usual 45-day salting and drying cycle, which would allow the product to be competitive. Huang managed to shorten the processing time to a week, and this was enough to make the jellyfish fishery profitable.

Jellyfish salad recipe.

150 g salted jellyfish.
1 large julienne cucumber.
1 tbsp. spoon of peanut butter.
1 tbsp. spoon of soy sauce.
1 tbsp. a spoonful of vinegar.
1 tbsp. spoon of sugar.
1 teaspoon of sesame oil.
Some hot chili oil.

Rinse the jellyfish under running water for 20 minutes or until all the salt is gone. Cut into strips. Dip in boiling water for 5 seconds, then rinse with cold water and let it drain. Cut the cucumber into slices and arrange them on a plate. Put the jellyfish on top and fill them with a mixture of the rest of the ingredients. Serve with lettuce.

Based on materials from the book "Extreme cuisine".
Jerry Hopkins.

Since you already know that jellyfish are quite edible and tasty, and you also got acquainted with the methods of their preliminary preparation before use, it is time to learn about specific recipes for cooking jellyfish dishes.
The last parting word: the highlight of cooking salted jellyfish dishes is such processing of jellyfish "meat" when it becomes a little crispy and not tough in taste. This can be achieved by strictly adhering to the steeping technology and, most importantly, by keeping it in boiling water, which should not be long, otherwise the "meat" of the jellyfish will become tough and not tasty. When cooking, jellyfish is most often cut into small strips; if a salad is being prepared, then all its components are also cut into strips.

Below are recipes for simple, by Russian standards, dishes that you can cook and appreciate the taste of "crystal meat".

Jellyfish with vegetables

• 1/2 tbsp. dry rice
• 200 g salted jellyfish
• 1 pod of sweet red pepper
• 2 small cucumbers
• 3 tsp rice vinegar
• 3 tbsp. l. soy sauce
• bay leaf
• lettuce leaves
• ground black pepper, salt to taste

Preparation:

Put the jellyfish in a bowl, add the bay leaf, sprinkle with pepper, pour over the rice vinegar.
Peel the seeds, rinse, dry and finely chop the bell peppers into thin strips.
Wash the cucumbers, peel and chop finely, preferably also into strips.
Jellyfish, aged in vinegar, cut into strips as thin as possible and mix with vegetables.
Put the rice on a dish, put the prepared mixture of jellyfish and vegetables on top, garnish with lettuce leaves and serve.
The dish is ready!

Ingredients:

• 250 g salted jellyfish
• 50 g dried shrimp
• 60 g soy sauce (50 g served separately)
• 25 g garlic
• 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sesame oil
• 1 tbsp. a spoonful of vinegar.

Preparation:

Soak salted jellyfish in cold water for 30-40 minutes, rinse, dry and cut into strips. Dip the chopped jellyfish into boiling water for 7-10 seconds, quickly remove and hold it again in cold water for 10-20 minutes. Remove from water, dry.

Boil the shrimp, dry through a colander and on a napkin.
In a salad bowl, first put jellyfish straws, shrimps on it, pour over soy sauce mixed with sesame oil, vinegar and sprinkle with finely chopped garlic.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup rice
• 200 g salted jellyfish
• 1 red bell pepper
• 3 small cucumbers
• 3 teaspoons of rice vinegar
• 3 tbsp. soy sauce
• lettuce, bay leaves, black pepper, green onions and finely chopped ginger - to taste.

Preparation:

Prepare rice as for sushi.
Put the jellyfish in a bowl, add the bay leaf, sprinkle with pepper, pour over the rice vinegar.
Peel the bell peppers, rinse, dry and chop finely. Wash cucumbers, peel and chop finely.
Chop the jellyfish aged in vinegar and mix with vegetables. Cut vegetables and jellyfish into small strips.
Put the rice on a dish, put the prepared mixture of jellyfish and vegetables on top. Decorate with lettuce leaves.
The dish is ready!

Ingredients:

• 150 gr. chicken fillet
• 100 g salted jellyfish
• 1 tbsp. a spoonful of oyster sauce
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• Vegetables and condiments: some stalk celery, carrots, hot chili peppers, cilantro leaves, sesame seeds.

For the sauce:

• 3 parts rice vinegar, 1 part sugar, finely chopped ginger and green onions.

Preparation:

Boil the chicken fillet, cut into strips.
Soak salted jellyfish for half an hour in water, dip in boiling water for 5-8 seconds and soak again in cold water for 10 minutes. Dry, cut into thin strips.
Cut carrots, celery, chili peppers into thin strips.
Combine and mix the chicken, jellyfish and vegetables, adding sesame oil, oyster sauce, soy sauce and cilantro leaves.
Prepare the sauce by mixing all the ingredients for it.
Put the salad on a dish, sprinkle with lightly fried sesame seeds.

Serve the sauce in a separate bowl.

Here is one of the many hot jellyfish recipes:

For cooking you will need:

• 100 g chicken fillet
• 10 g cilantro
• 50 g salted jellyfish, thinly cut into strips
• 10 g oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon red wine
• 1 bouillon cube
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 50 g of vegetable oil, preferably olive
• starch
• salt and sugar to taste.

Preparation:

Fry the chicken and carrots in vegetable oil in a wok for two minutes, then add the sauce, wine, salt, sugar, bouillon cube and fry for another two minutes.
Add cilantro, starch, sesame oil and jellyfish cut into strips for 50 seconds.
The dish is ready!

Did you know that jellyfish are not only beautiful and unusual inhabitants of the seas and oceans, but also a fairly popular delicacy, especially in Japan, China, Korea, Indonesia and other Asian countries. Is it possible to cook an exotic jellyfish dish at home? In continuation of the post, the personal experience of one culinary specialist.

Jellyfish are eaten and cooked in different ways. The Chinese, for example, wash them, remove the tentacles and pickle them in a mixture of salt and alum for several weeks or even months using a complex technology, after which they sometimes even dry them. Before use, the product is soaked, then boiled for a short time. If you cook soaked jellyfish for a little longer, they become too tough. They write that jellyfish are an extremely useful product.
I want to tell you about my experiences with the preparation and use of our Black Sea jellyfish for food. I foresee immediately the objections and indignations of many: why do we need this? Where are we and where are the jellyfish? Yes, I will not take that into my mouth! Etc. But do not renounce. Who knows where BP will find you? Even if not B, but individual. And so that it does not turn into a really P, unnecessary knowledge will not be superfluous. I don't want to fantasize about shipwrecks and other situations when this knowledge can be useful, in short: read!

Jellyfish dishes

There are several kilometers from my city to the Black Sea Bay. Recently, having rested with my family on a picnic on the beach, I caught seven kilogram jellyfish there in a basin and brought them home.

First experience, unsuccessful

After washing two kilograms of jellyfish under the tap, I put them in a saucepan, sprinkling abundantly with salt.

Soon the jellyfish let out the juice, however, quite a bit. After a few hours, they were a very unsightly sight, especially compared to jellyfish from another batch.

Perhaps in a few weeks or months, the jellyfish would have released almost all the water out of themselves, especially if I added alum to the salt, as the Chinese do. I realized that this is not our method, I washed the jellyfish from salt and processed them according to the second method.

The second experience, also unsuccessful

I dipped another two kilograms of washed jellyfish into boiling water and cooked for 15 minutes. However, I cooked it - it is loudly said. Until the water boiled again, it took almost 10 minutes, so they actually did not cook for long.

During this time, the jellyfish shrank pretty much, releasing water, and when I took them out of the boiling water, they weighed noticeably less - 958 g.

Cooling down, the jellyfish continued to release water from themselves and shrink, and in the end, even decreased in volume. The weight has decreased to 295g.

I chopped one finely, seasoned with pepper, sprinkled with vinegar, oil, salt to taste, and tried it. The taste is pleasant, but the own taste of jellyfish was not felt. Only the seasonings I added tasted. Smell - apart from the smell of seasonings - the pleasant smell of the sea. Density - like soft jelly, not dense enough. Therefore, in order for the jellyfish to thicken further, I sprinkled them abundantly with salt and left them for several days.

On the second day, they let out a lot of water and swam in the concentrated brine that formed. The smell remained pleasant, despite the fact that the can was kept warm. A week later, taking out the jellyfish from the brine, I weighed them. From two kilograms of live jellyfish, only 70 grams are left!

Moreover, the bodies of the jellyfish softened and lost their shape. Taking 100 grams of such salted jellyfish (I also boiled and salted the rest, so I had a little more product), I washed them from salt and soaked them in fresh water for an hour, changing the water a couple of times. As it turned out later, it took longer to soak: they remained slightly salty. Weighing after soaking showed that only 80 grams remained! I fried this portion for a few minutes in sunflower oil. As a result, it turned out ridiculously small: 33 grams! This is from about three kilograms of live jellyfish.

I did not add any seasonings, but the taste of the product was pleasant, albeit slightly salty. The density is like fried butter, and the consistency was like jelly. But 33 grams out of 3 kilograms is too little! They write that jellyfish is 98% water, but this means that the remaining 2% is dry matter. I have a little more than one percent left, and the substance is far from dry! ...
I came to the conclusion that in the process of cooking jellyfish they lost not only water, but also nutrients, so I decided to continue the experiments to find the best way.

The third experience, successful

I assumed that my mistake was that I did not boil the jellyfish for a long time, and they did not thicken enough when cooking. Therefore, I went to the bay again and brought another 5 kilograms of jellyfish from there. I cooked them in two passes in such a way that after boiling they boiled for about half an hour. During this time, the jellyfish shrank noticeably, releasing water from themselves, and after cooking, during the cooling, the water was almost not released. From five kilograms of live jellyfish, 432 grams were obtained. This represents 8.6% of live weight.

Half - 216 grams - I cut into large pieces and fried in sunflower oil for several minutes.

The result was 164 g of fried jellyfish, which is 6.5% of the original live weight. The view, in contrast to the previous experience, is very appetizing.

I salted them to taste, added a pinch of sugar, sprinkled with vinegar, pepper with a ground mixture of peppers. After standing overnight in the refrigerator, the pieces absorbed the marinade and were ready. I am describing. Density like pickled butter. The consistency resembles a dense elastic jelly. The aroma of added seasonings plus a pronounced sea smell. It tastes a bit like pickled mushrooms. However, any taste can be given to the product, since jellyfish do not have a pronounced taste of their own. I won't be surprised if next time I can make a sweet dish like jelly or marmalade from jellyfish. This is still a joke, but who knows!

The fourth experience, also successful

As I said, I only fried half of the boiled jellyfish. I salted the other half, sprinkling abundantly with salt. In a few days, they still let the water out of themselves and swam in the brine. The jellyfish retained their shape, decreasing only in size. From 216g of boiled jellyfish after salting it turned out to be 119g, and after an hour and a half of soaking with a change of water - 100g. This is from 2500 g of live jellyfish. That is 4% of live weight.

The appearance of the product was not as appetizing as that of those jellyfish that were not salted. They were soft, there was no elasticity. After a short frying in vegetable oil, 72 g of fried product was obtained. This is slightly less than three percent of the initial live weight.

Dressed with pepper and vinegar, the taste of jellyfish was not inferior to those that were pickled without salting, although they were inferior in appearance.

1. In some extreme cases, jellyfish can become a reliable food source with a large cooking pot and sufficient fuel. The yield of the finished product is, depending on the degree of processing, from three to nine percent of live weight. If salt is present, boiled jellyfish can be harvested for future use.
2. It is not necessary to separate the tentacles from the umbrella, it is necessary to cook jellyfish for half an hour from the moment of boiling.
3. Boiled jellyfish can either be salted for future use, or fried in oil (the best option), or eaten unfried, which is not so tasty, but acceptable.
4. With the help of various seasonings, spices and spices, jellyfish can be given the most varied taste and aroma, but even without any additives, boiled jellyfish are completely edible and do not have an unpleasant taste or smell.

The invasion of jellyfish on the Black Sea coast in recent years has truly become a natural disaster. The author himself repeatedly, while fishing, got into jellyfish cauldrons, in which even the boat stopped. They often create, literally, walls on the beaches, ranging from the surface of the water to the very bottom. In such conditions, there is simply no need to talk about bathing. Jellyfish cause a lot of concern among vacationers, causing at least not fatal, but unpleasant long-term burns. Black Sea jellyfish are not dangerous to humans. Their tentacles are equipped with so-called stinging cells. From touching them, a person gets a burn like from nettle, traces of which remain on the body for up to several hours.

Incredibly, the facts are as follows: jellyfish have long been used in cooking. Only about everything in order.

There are two types of jellyfish in the Black Sea. Aurelia (Aurelia aurita) or eared aurelia. It has a flat umbrella with a diameter of 10-20 cm, along the edges of which there are numerous filamentous tentacles. Most often it is colorless, sometimes with a slight shade of blue, pink, purple. The second type is Cornerot (Rhizostoma pulmo), alikon or alikon. This is the largest Black Sea jellyfish. It can be recognized by its large umbrella - up to 50 cm in diameter, from which eight large tapered processes extend, which gave the jellyfish its name. It is colored pink, greenish, blue.

Nevertheless, among the jellyfish, there are poisonous individuals, which has become a real problem for many world resorts, leading to numerous deaths, in number exceeding even deaths from shark attacks. This phenomenon has already received its poetic name: KISS OF MEDUSA (photo).

However, traditionally, the problem has two sides. It turns out that they are actively used in cooking. This kind of development also exists in relation to the Black Sea jellyfish. Despite the extremely high water content of their bodies (95-98%), they are the objects of fishing in a number of countries of Southeast Asia, primarily in China and Japan. Among the 12 species of jellyfish harvested for food purposes, the most valuable are representatives of corneroids (family Rhizostomatidae) - ropilema (Rhopilema esculentum and Rhopilema asamushi), aurelia and some others.

In the culinary and traditional medicine of China, jellyfish dishes have been used for over 1,700 years. They are recommended for tracheitis, high blood pressure and other diseases. They are also a dietary product for those looking to lose weight.
In Asian cuisines, jellyfish are widely used. So, in China, they have been salted or dried for more than a thousand years (as a result, something like dried mushrooms or thin brown pancakes are formed).

Jellyfish are also found in Japanese sushi recipes. In Thailand, they are used to make noodles. In 2006, during the mass breeding of large jellyfish off the coast of Japan, these jelly-like creatures even went to the filling for pies, from which they made soups. And since the Chinese and Japanese live in many countries of the world, the fishery for edible species also exists on a small scale in India, the United States and Australia.

The current annual world catch of jellyfish is 300-320 thousand tons. New countries are developing their fishery. So, in 2000, some fishery organizations of the Primorsky Territory (Russian Federation) began fishing for jellyfish and their export to China, and in 2005 they were included in the list of fishing objects in Kamchatka.

Both types of Black Sea jellyfish are suitable for the production of food, feed and technical products. This is evidenced by the results of pioneering technological research by AzCherNIRO and AzNIIRKh, carried out in the 70s of the XX century.

As studies of the Odessa branch of AzCherNIRO have shown, the umbrella mesoglea contains 98.29% moisture and 1.71% dry matter, which includes 74.0% mineral and 26.0% organic substances, including 12.45% protein ... Mesoglea of \u200b\u200bthe cornerot umbrella contains 98.25% moisture and 1.75% dry matter, which includes 72.59% mineral and 27.41% organic matter, including 15.80% protein and 1.03% fat ... Jellyfish protein is complete and contains 17 amino acids, including a complete set of essential ones.

Salted products were made from each type of jellyfish on an experimental basis by the order and technology of the Japanese company Morikawa Shoji Kaisha LTD. The product was obtained from the cornerot in the form of a dense thin film with the smell of seaweed, which contained 70% moisture, 9% protein, 0.35% fat and 16.8% minerals. Aurelia products had the appearance of the same film and contained 16.4% moisture, 7.7% protein and 16.5% minerals.

The output of finished products for the first type was 2.4%, for the second - 1.03%. The products received the approval of the tasting council of the Azcherryba VRPO, but their production on an industrial scale and export were not realized.

AzNIIRKh and the Pobeda fish farm of the Krasnodar Fishery Kolkhoz Union have developed a method for preserving jellyfish for their subsequent use as organic additives in building materials, which increases the mechanical strength of products by at least 20-30%.

The publication uses materials from the FishIndustry.net site based on the article by YugNIRO (Kerch) "Jellyfish as a Potential Fishing Target".

If you feel like experimenting, make a jellyfish salad with shrimp.

For this you need:

250 g salted jellyfish
50 g dried shrimp
60 g soy sauce
25 g garlic
1 tbsp. a spoonful of sesame oil
1 tbsp. a spoonful of vinegar.

Preparation:

Soak salted jellyfish in cold water for 30-40 minutes, rinse, dry, cut into strips. Dip it in boiling water for 7-10 seconds, quickly remove it and hold it again in cold water for 10-20 minutes, dry it. Boil the shrimps, dry through a colander and on a napkin.

In a salad bowl, first put jellyfish straws, shrimps on it, pour soy sauce mixed with sesame oil, vinegar and sprinkle with finely chopped garlic. Enjoy your meal!

Still not cook, but beautiful !!! ..;)

“Fools are preparing a feast; the wise men feast "
(Benjamin Franklin)

Hey, it turns out that I am both a fool and a sage at the same time - I ate what I cooked. So I'm in full balance.
In general, if you figure it out, what kind of crap people don't eat ...
A typical example is jellyfish. Well, who came up with the idea that you can eat it? Not otherwise, Cthulhu fucked someone's brain ...
Jellyfish can be eaten both fresh and salted. But I did not see it fresh on sale, although I drove through several Asian storage sheds.
So we are preparing the salted jellyfish. Since I don't know anything else about salted jellyfish, except for a salad, I rummaged around on the Internet. I didn't find anything new, but I was surprised how many people like jellyfish salad.
Cooking is simple, but time-consuming as the jellyfish is hellishly salty and takes a long time to soak.
Well, the couple got a lot of food, because this is just a salad, not borsch, and cooking is elementary.
Take in equal parts by weight salted jellyfish and daikon, half the size of a cucumber, plus a medium carrot for color.

Boil the jellyfish for three minutes, drain the water, fill it with cold water and soak it for 8 hours, changing the water several times, and squeezing the jellyfish a little to remove excess salt.
By the end of soaking, we cut the daikon and carrots into thin matches, salt, and leave for an hour to soften and give off excess liquid.

10-15 minutes before serving, cut cucumbers with the same macar, salt and let stand.

We are preparing such a standard dressing:
For 300 gr. jellyfish 1-1.5 tbsp. l. soy sauce, 2-3 tbsp. l. rice vinegar, 2-3 chopped garlic cloves, tsp. sugar, tsp sesame oil.

We discard the vegetables and jellyfish in a colander, let the liquid drain, and mix with the dressing. We put it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes, cool and brew. We put the vodka in the freezer.
Jellyfish has a slightly crunchy texture and a mild but unusual taste.