Haesam Dalhoneun-beop (Preparing and Stuffing Sea Cucumber)

History

Sea cucumber (haesam, 海蔘, literally "sea ginseng") has long ranked among Korea's most prized marine foods, its name reflecting a belief in restorative, tonic value. One of the earliest references to eating it comes from King Sejong's geographical treatise of 1454, which lists coastal places where sea cucumber was a local delicacy; it later featured in Joseon royal cuisine. Because fresh sea cucumber hardens and turns inedible if boiled directly, it was usually dried and painstakingly reconstituted by long soaking with changes of water; dried haesam also became a valued export, traded with China and Japan by the 18th century. Jang Gye-hyang's Eumsik dimibang (c.1670), the oldest surviving Korean-language cookbook, records haesam among several seafood dishes, including haesam-jjim, haesam-nureumi and haesam-tang. This recipe reconstitutes dried sea cucumber, simmers it tender, then stuffs it with minced pheasant, mushrooms (pyogo, seogi, songi) and flour seasoned with black pepper and cheoncho (Korean/Sichuan pepper), sews it shut and steams it like a fowl before slicing; variants serve it in a thickened broth or dressed with vinegar-soy as a drinking snack. Its pungency comes from cheoncho and pepper, since the book predates chili in Korean cooking. The manuscript's own text adds that cooks in Hamgyeong province handled haesam differently and that reheating spoils it.

Ingredients

• dried sea cucumber
• pheasant
• fine wheat flour
• seogi, pyogo, jini, songi mushrooms
• black pepper
• soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar
• scallion
• rice straw

Instructions

1. Par-boil dried sea cucumber; scrape the innards clean with a knife, wash until bluish-clean, and re-boil until very soft.
2. Mince pheasant with fine flour and seogi/pyogo/jini/songi mushrooms; season with ground black pepper.
3. Stuff the mixture fully into the sea cucumber's belly and tie with thread.
4. Steam over water (a vessel set above the pot) as for chicken; untie and slice.
5. Alternatives: boil plain, soak and slice, dress with soy/oil/vinegar; or slice plain in vinegar-soy as a wine snack; or sauce with scallion as neureumi.
6. Note: in Hamgyong Province they rehydrate it in clear lye-water, but over-soaking spoils it; boiling with rice straw softens it fast.