As Japan is surrounded by water, the Japanese eat a lot of seafood as part of their diet. My mom used to serve fish and seafood way more frequently than I do for my own family. San Francisco is located by the ocean so I’m lucky to be able to have pretty of fresh seafood available all year around. Because enjoying seafood has been always part of my life, it wasn’t until I learned from food bloggers living in areas not close by ocean that seafood can be hard to get. So today’s post may not be or everyone, but I thought it might be interesting for everyone to see how the Japanese typically cook and eat some seafood, and today’s menu is simple, easy, yet delectable sauteed abalone dish.
My husband bought these baby abalone from the nearby Japanese supermarket and wanted to make it himself so I told him how to cook it. It was interesting for me to watch him prepare food in the kitchen because he normally just barbecues.
I’ve learned from past experience the key to preparing delicious abalone is to not overcook them. These abalones were really small so they were done cooking in less than 1 minute. For regular-sized abalone, I usually never cook for more than 4-5 minutes otherwise the meat loses the tenderness and becomes rock hard. My husband really loves shellfish so I’ll share another one of his favorite abalone recipes in the future.
I hope you enjoy this simple dish with cold sake, or even without drinks. You can of course substitute abalone with shrimp, chicken, white fish…as you like! Have a wonderful weekend!
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Sautéed Abalone
Ingredients
- 5 baby abalone
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 clove garlic (minced)
- 2 Tbsp dashi (Japanese soup stock; click to learn more) (can substitute with sake or white wine)
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- green onion/scallion (Finely chopped, for garnish)
Optional
- ⅛-¼ tsp soy sauce (if you don't use dashi and used sake/white wine, you can drizzle a tiny bit of soy sauce)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Use a knife to remove from the shell. Remove the abalone guts and heart.
- Clean the abalone with tiny bit of salt under running water.
- Make some slits crosswise.
- Melt butter on the frying pan over medium heat.
- Add abalone.
- Then quickly add minced garlic.
- Lastly pour dashi stock and lemon juice and turn abalone and saute for 1 minute. Do not overcook. Remove from heat immediately.
- Garnish with green onions and serve immediately.
