December 2, 2011

Ama Ebi Head Miso Soup/甘エビの味噌汁

Last night, we separated the head from each ama ebi before eating, so we could have ama ebi head miso soup this morning.
昨晩は、甘エビを食べる前に頭を取り、今朝、甘エビの味噌汁を作りました。
I added 1 tsp instant dashi because the dashi (extract) from the heads was not strong enough.
甘エビの出汁があまり濃くないので、出汁の素を小さじ1杯入れました。

For more about ama ebi head miso soup, view a previous post.
甘エビの味噌汁については、以前の投稿を見て下さい。

8 comments:

  1. Thank you for this idea. It sounds delicious. I must do it at least once to see how it tastes and to see in which "user" group I am (those who don't eat the head, those who eat the interior or the brave ones who eat them whole :-) see, I have just read your previous shrimp head post!). Do you think raw shrimp heads would give a stronger taste? (these were cooked before you put them in the stock weren't they?).

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  2. Sissi: I can't answer your question because I've never had raw shrimp heads! And, I didn't cook the heads in any way before putting them in the pot of water. I just rinsed them quickly with cold water and put them in the pot. As long as the shrimp are fresh enough, you don't have to cook them beforehand.

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  3. I've never done this with shrimp before; I've saved the heads from crawfish and used them to make stock for gumbo, which was delicious: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumbo
    I'll have to try this with shrimp heads, the next time I have really fresh shrimp.

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  4. Feelers are quite stingy while chewing them. The mouthfeeling is not so nice (laugh). I ate unpeeled shrimps in china - no biggy just a bit more chewing. Heads and peel are great for sauces, broth, Beurre d’ecrevisse.

    Hiroyuki: You never bought uncooked shrimps? Here I can buy some kinds of shrimps frozen but uncooked or fully cooked, peeled and frozen or cooked or fesh (don't know if they are really fresh unless they try to run away). Uncooked are best because fresh cooked they are really juicy and soft.

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  5. muskrat: You can also make good stock from crab shell!

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  6. Kiki: I'm not sure what you mean by "uncooked", but I can say that Japan has the highest per capita consumption of prawn/shrimp in the world, and imports various spieces of them from around the world, which are sold and cooked in various ways.

    In Japan, ama ebi are considered best when eated raw, that is, as sashimi. When cooked, they are rather untasty. In fact, we rarely cook ama ebi.

    On the other hand, kuruma ebi
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuruma_Ebi
    are considered best as tempura (cooked on the outside but still raw around the center).

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  7. Hiroyuki: Ah I simply mistook your "I've never had raw shrimp heads". Now I understand. You mentioned eating raw shrimp heats, not buying.

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  8. Hiroyuki, I am sorry, I meant making the stock or soup starting with raw heads (I have just read your conversation with Kiki) rather than with cooked heads, as you did. Sorry again for this error. I'm sometimes not good at explanations...
    By the way, kimchi I have made a couple of days ago is already excellent! I will post it soon.

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