How do you select, rehydrate, eat and store dried sea cucumber sold on the market? What is the approximate market price per jin? What are its effects and benefits?

Dried sea cucumber is the finished product made from sea cucumber after processing. Although its nutritional value is not as high as fresh sea cucumber, its nutrients are more easily absorbed by the human body than fresh sea cucumber.So how do you select, rehydrate, eat and store dried sea cucumber? What is the approximate market price per jin? What are its effects and benefits? According to what was learned from the Qingdao seafood market, depending on the variety and grade, sea cucumber prices range from several hundred to several thousand, or even tens of thousands, per jin.

How do you select, rehydrate, eat and store dried sea cucumber?

Selecting dried sea cucumber:

1. Tube feet: Wild sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus) generally grows in sea areas about 20 m deep and moves around using its tube feet to search for food, so its tube feet are short and thick; farmed sea cucumber is fed by farmers and does not need to move, and lives in shallow water areas, so the moving function of its tube feet declines, its adsorption ability is poor, and they become slender.

2. Sand mouth: The sand mouth of wild sea cucumber is large and hard.

3. Flesh: Because wild sea cucumber grows in deep water (15 to 20 m), with low water temperature, little sunlight and slow growth, its flesh is thick and elastic, its tendons are broad, thick and plump, and the nutrients deposited are rich; farmed sea cucumber grows quickly, and its flesh is soft and not firm.

4. Shape: Wild sea cucumber is spindle-shaped, pointed at both ends and thick in the middle, short, thick and plump, and looks very solid; farmed sea cucumber is slender overall and lacks toughness.

5. Back spines: Wild sea cucumber needs to search for food and is more active, so the spines on its back and both sides are thick and strong, and vary in thickness; farmed sea cucumber is artificially fed and less active, so the spines on its back and both sides are basically the same in length, and the slender spines appear weak.

6. Growth years: Wild sea cucumber generally needs to grow for more than 4-5 years to reach the standard for harvesting. The longer the time, the more nutrients are deposited, and the greater its tonic value; farmed sea cucumber, in order to quickly reach the market for sale, is rapidly fattened, and is harvested and sold in just one to two years, so its nutritional value is obviously not as good as that of wild sea cucumber.

In addition, wild sea cucumber tastes chewy and not astringent, and its cut surface is fine, neat and even.

Rehydrating dried sea cucumber:

1. Clean the surface dust off the sea cucumber, put it into a clean container, add purified water or mineral water, and make sure the sea cucumber is completely submerged in the water. Soak it in the refrigerator's fresh-keeping compartment for 48 hours, changing the water twice during that time.

2. After soaking for 48 hours, pour out the water. At this time, the sea cucumber has clearly grown larger. Clean the soaked sea cucumber. There is an opening on the belly of the sea cucumber, which is the opening cut before processing to remove the internal organs. Cut along this opening to both ends all the way to the head. When you cut to the head of the sea cucumber, you will see the cauliflower-shaped sand mouth and the white sea cucumber teeth. Clean the sand mouth and teeth thoroughly.

3. Do not remove the white inner tendons on the wall of the sea cucumber; those are the sea cucumber tendons. Cutting them into several sections with scissors can let the sea cucumber grow larger better. Cut the sea cucumber tendons apart from the middle. Wash the prepared sea cucumber clean, put it into an electric pressure cooker and pour in enough purified water. Use the porridge cooking function to cook it thoroughly, then let it stew until it cools naturally.

4. Take out the thoroughly stewed sea cucumber, put it back into a clean container, pour in enough purified water, and place it in the refrigerator to soak and rehydrate for 24 hours. During this final rehydration process, you will find that the sea cucumber has grown a bit more. After rehydrating the sea cucumber, drain the water, wrap it well with plastic wrap or put it in a fresh-keeping box, and then place it in the freezer. Each time you eat it, take it out, soak it open in cold water, and eat it in whatever way you like. Convenient and quick!

Eating dried sea cucumber:

1. Minced pork sea cucumber: choose meat that is three parts fat and seven parts lean (that is, 30 percent fat and 70 percent lean). Cut the meat into mince, blanch it in water, and after the minced meat changes color, add soy sauce, water and a little sugar, then put in the sea cucumber and simmer over low heat until the sauce is absorbed.

2. Spicy sea cucumber: If minced pork sea cucumber is not satisfying enough, you can also add dried chili peppers or chili oil on this basis, and mix in Sichuan Pixian doubanjiang, to make spicy sea cucumber.

3. Sea cucumber with small tofu: Cut garland chrysanthemum into mince, mix with egg white and starch and stir into a paste; cut the sea cucumber into small rice-grain-sized pieces, blanch them in water, and stir them evenly into the egg white paste. Then heat a pan with scallion and ginger, stir-fry together with tender tofu until cooked, and it is ready to eat. This dish is especially suitable for elderly people.

Storing dried sea cucumber:

1. Storing dried sea cucumber in a dry and ventilated place is enough. Because the flesh of the sea cucumber has already dried out, and the outside is still covered with a layer of salt, which isolates the air, it will not spoil.

2. To avoid affecting its quality and taste, if you want to keep it short term, it is best to put it in refrigeration; if you want to keep it longer term, then it is best to put it in frozen storage, and thaw it before eating. This is the safest storage method.

What are the effects and benefits of dried sea cucumber?

1. Sea cucumber is low in cholesterol and relatively low in fat. It is a typical high-protein, low-fat, low-cholesterol food. For patients with high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, hepatitis and other illnesses, as well as elderly people, it can be called an excellent food therapy, and eating it often is very beneficial for treating illness and strengthening the body;

2. Sea cucumber contains chondroitin sulfate, which helps human growth and development, can delay muscle aging, and enhance the body's immunity;

3. Sea cucumber ranks first among various foods in the content of the trace element vanadium, and can participate in the transport of iron in the blood, enhancing hematopoietic function;

4. Recently, American researchers extracted a special substance from sea cucumber - holothurin. This compound can effectively inhibit the growth and metastasis of various molds and certain human cancer cells;

5. Eating sea cucumber has good effects on aplastic anemia, diabetes, gastric ulcers and so on;

6. Sea cucumber is sweet and salty in taste and warm in nature, and enters the heart, kidney, spleen and lung meridians; it has the effects of nourishing yin and tonifying the kidney, strengthening yang and benefiting essence, nourishing the heart and moistening dryness, enriching the blood, and treating ulcers, among others.