Recipe Ebi Sashimi (Japanese Sliced Raw Live Shrimp or Prawn, Served with Soy Sauce Dip)

Ebi Sashimi ( Japanese Style Sliced Raw Prawn or Shrimp)

Homemade Ebi Sashimi is a Japanese simple dish consisting thinly sliced of very fresh raw flesh from live shrimp or prawn.  Sashimi lloterrary means “pierced meat”,. The preparation of ebi or prawn sashimi is quite simple, no need of cooking, just a chef’s knive skills involved. The live shrimp or prawn used to be prepared just before serving, even it’s ususally prepared by sushi chef right infront of the hungry customers. The chef twist the body of the prawn to separate it from the head, devein, cleaned, sliced  and then served, that’s it!. Most of you may think it’s sounds icky, but i’m pretty sure that i had a pretty high standard of taste buds,  you should try give it a try first!, don’t overthink and then you’ll gonna love it. I love eating raw prawn, shrimp or lobster, if you want to introduced yourself with eating  raw seafood, i think my spicy and tasty Live Lobster Ceviche Recipe will be a great starter, just adjust the ingredients with prawn, shrimp, scallops or any fish fillets you’ve got.

Raw Prawn Sashimi

Prawn sashimi used to be served ikizukuri style; the prawn or shrimp flesh is thinly sliced while the head laying beside is still crawling, twitching, and moving. If you didn’t had a stoneheart like mine and consider it’s over than too fresh, ask nicely to the chef to remove the head from the serving plate. Instead of discarding the prawn or shrimp head, the sushi chef used to deep fried or grill it to made a little side snacks. But i think i’m not gonna do that, i’m gonna made a shrimp or prawn head miso soup using my Japanese Lobster Miso Soup Recipe.

Live Giant Tiger Prawn Swimming in a Tank, Ready to Catch for Making Ebi Sashimi

I’m using live giant black tiger prawn for making this prawn sashimi. The giant tiger prawn was pretty huge, weight about 150-200 grams each and about 25-30 cm long, only six of seven of giant tiger prawn for a kilo. Tiger prawn flesh got a bluish translucent color when it’s raw. Live giant tiger prawn is not available at all market here in Indonesia, you can go to trusted supplier of live prawn. In jakarta there  several live prawn supplier; Iane fish market, Everfresh fish market, Bandar Djakarta Fish Market or in Grand Lucky Supermarket. If you can’t access the live prawn or shrimp, purchase the vaccum packed ones with certified sashimi grade.

Live Tiger Prawn Compeletely Sedated in Ice Cold Water on a 12 Inches Shallow Porcelaine Bowl

Killing live giant tiger prawn for making sashimi is another tricky problems. My palm is almost injured once i try to grab it with my bare hands. I was trying to handle it with my hands and taking it’s photograph, but it’s keep jumping all over and made a hillarious kitchen mess.  My sister told me that she used to sedate the lobster or catfish with ice cold water and lucklily once i try it, it’s works. The ice cold water made the prawns sedated without killing them.  I put one of the live giant tiger prawn in a 12 inches (30 cm diameter) bowl filled with ice cold water to compare the  prawn size. The freshness of the ingredients is the key of delicious sashimi. Never buy raw shrimps or prawn from market stalls to make shrimp sashimi, even it’s freshly caught, the fluctuative temperature during the transportation may degraded it’s qualities. So, i personally only eat sashimi once it’s only from a live prawn or shrimp.

Fresh Raw Prawn Meat with Bluish Translucent Color

Before you thinking to made your own prawn sashimi, you should know there’s several rules to follow for making a delicious, edible and SAVETY prawn sashimi.  Prawn sashimi is eaten raw,  any improper preparation and excessive intake can lead to food poisoning.  Any raw animal product like raw prawn flesh is a high risk food. Marine prawn or shrimp are commonly used in prawn  sashimi.  Their shells are easily contaminated by pathogens, like Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio cholera, the risk even higher with eating raw freshwater prawn or shrimp. In order to reduce the risk, you should pay extra attention on the following tips to make prawn or shrimp sashimi at home :

• If you had live shrimp or prawn, keep it  alive as long as posible, kill it just before served as sashimi,
• If you had a vaccum packed prawn or shrimp with cerrtified sashimi grade, thaw it in the fridge overnight or submerged the whole package in a cold water before making sashimi, never thawing it in room temperature or your sashimi prawn or shrimp gonna be spoiled.
• Keep all the tools clean and properly desinfected for making sashimi, stop handling sashimi if there are accidentally wounds / cuts on your hands.Cleanliness is the law for the sushi chef!!!
• Keep the shrimp or prawn cold, right after you dressed the live shrimp or prawn, put some ice to kept it cold, it’s better you served prawn or shrimp sashimi over a bed of ice.
• Keep it fast and moving, dress your prawn or shrimp quickly and served it immediately, it’s better to served raw prawn or shrimp sashimi within 2 hours after the prawn or shrimp killed and dressed.
• Incase your sashimi is not fresh or with a strange taste (usually from the frozen vaccum pack), stop eating it.
• Consult the doctor  if gastrointestinal symptoms appear after eating raw shrimp or prawn sashimi

Prawn Sashimi Served Over Rice Vermicelli

Prawn sashimi  is typically draped over a garnish. The typical garnish for serving sashimi is shredded or grated daikon white radish, sisho or perilla leaf, sliced lime or lemon, and boiled rice vermicelly. Sashimi is normally served only with a dipping soy sauce, wasabi paste, and  thinly jullienned fresh ginger. I used to add some chopped birs eye chillies and chinese black vinegar. Chilli and vinegar may overpowering the natural sweetness of the raw prawn or shrimp flesh, but a splash made the sashimi tasty even more. Wasabi paste give extra hotness flavor and it’s  also killing harmful bacteria and parasites that could be present in raw seafood

Giant Tiger Prawn Sashimi

Raw Live Prawn Sashimi with Savoury , Sweet, Succulent, Bounchy and Crisp Flesh

How does raw prawn or shrimp flesh taste like ?? well to answer that question, at least you’ve gotta try once. Raw prawn or shrimp meat taste savoury and umami sweet with a hint of the sea, live prawn or shrimp meat  isn’t fishy at all . The texture is succulent and bounchy with a tone of crisp, just like a cross combination of konyaku jelly and agar with a little bit of crisp when you chew it. Giant tiger prawn flesh got a pretty nice flavour, eventhough the meat isn’t as sweet as Amaebi shrimp that used to be served as ebi sashimi in Japan.

Ebi Sashimi Recipe ( Live Prawn or Shrimp Thinly Raw Sliced Meat):

• 1 kg of live giant tiger prawn or shrimp
• ice box with crushed ice block
• ice cold freshwater
• 1 medium size daikon radish, peeled
• 1 lemon or lime, thinly slice
• 1 pack rice vermicelly, cooked with package instruction, set aside
• sisho or perilla leaves
• Sesame Seed, toasted

Ebi Sashimi Prawn or Shrimp Sashimi Dipping Sauce Recipe:

• Kikkoman (Japanese sauceapanese soy sauce)
• Wasabi Paste
• Thumb size fresh ginger, thinly jullienned*optional
• Chinese black vinegar*optional
• Bird eye chillies, finely chopped*optional

 How to Make Ebi Sashimi (Thinly Sliced Raw Prawn or Shrimp Meat):

A. How to humanely killed live shrimp or prawn:

• Add about 3 -4 cups crushed ice in 1 litre water, put the live shrimp or prawn on it, close the bown with lid incase the shrimp trying to jumped out
• Wait until 2-3 minutes until the shrimp or the prawn  is totally onconcious but still alive
• Hold the live shrimp or prawn with both of your hand, twist the body againds the head to compeletely seperate it
• Washed the head and also the body under running ice cold water and put the cleaned shrimp or prawn on ice box
• Repeat this step one by one until all your shrimp or prawn is cleaned
• REMEMBER TO KEEP THE SHRIMP OR PRAWN COLD

B. How to Prepare or Dress Shrimp for Sahimi:

• First you have to devein the prawn or shrimp, using a sharp tiny scissor, cut the back of the shrimp and pierce the middle side of the back longitudinally
• Discard the entire vein
• Peel off the shrimp or prawn meat from the shell
• Washed it with running ice cold water from any debris or shell fragment and put it in the ice clean box
• Repeat this steps until all the shrimp or prawn meat is compeletely peeled
• You can thinly slice, or butterflied  the meat first, but i like to split it in half and then cut into bite size

Raw Giant Prawn Sashimi, Deveined and split into two, ready to cut into bite size

• Keep the sliced raw prawn or shrimp meat for sashimi in ice box before serving
• REMEMBER TO KEEP THE SHRIMP OR PRAWN COLD

C. How to Arrange Prawn or Shrimp Sashimi Platter:

• The simple platter of prawn or shrimp sashimi may vary a lot, but i like to put mine in a shallow plate
• Put the grated daikon and sisho leaf side by side
• Lay the rice vermicelly and arrange the sliced raw prawn or shrimp sashimi over it
• Put few slice of lemon or lime as a garnish
• Served the raw prawn or shrimp sashimi aside with the dipping sauce
• I like to hold the sliced raw prawn or shrimp sashimi and the rice vermicelly with chopstick and then dip it into the dipping soy sauce, then eat and enjoy it!!!

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