My missus went and bought a kilogram of jellyfish and dumped the bag in the fridge…
Omigawd!!! I did not have the slightest inkling what to do with it, so I quickly googled for the recipe…and guess what! I stumbled upon Elin’s recipe for jellyfish – good ol’ Elin to the rescue! I followed her instructions and soaked the jellyfish in water for three days, changing the water twice a day.
I’ve eaten pickled jellyfish at the restaurants before but I never bothered to try and figure out how they prepared it. I remember when I was young, my mum would buy some from the market and she just cut it into slices, blanched it in hot water and served it with her own special sambal. I loved the sambal but all of a sudden, we never had that anymore. So I went and asked her why…and she said that when my father started losing his teeth, he could not bite and chew the jellyfish anymore, so that was it! She stopped buying and we never had jellyfish again after that. I found out from her that in the sambal, she had pounded chillies and garlic…plus calamansi lime juice, sugar and soy sauce.
Then, at the wedding dinner the other night, they had jellyfish with Bombay onions – umai-style in the Four Seasons’ dish…and I actually liked it a lot. Thus, in the end, I decided to do something like that with the jellyfish…instead of following Elin’s recipe or my mum’s way of serving it.
I sliced the jellyfish VERY thinly so there would not be any problem chewing it when eating…
After that, I boiled some water and blanched the jellyfish in it…before adding thinly-sliced Bombay onions, a bit of ginger and some sugar and squeezing lots of calamansi lime juice into it and tossing everything together. My missus had some blended chillies and garlic stored in bottles in the fridge for her own consumption, so I just added that – saved me the trouble of having to pound chillies and garlic…and finally, I added sliced chillies, more for the colour than anything else…
After all that had been done, I stored it in a container and put it in the fridge, tossing it periodically, to allow the jellyfish to soak in all the ingredients.
We had it for dinner that night…and my missus said it was very nice! Of course!!! I made it! LOL!!!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
I cannot take these… will trigger allergic reaction… whole body will itch if take jellyfish!
Oh? I thought it’s all water? You just boil it and it will evaporate until there’s almost nothing left. But I heard people say that it has health benefits…
Made from water meh? Eh… I dunno… but each time I take jellyfish, sure itchy here and there wan… summore can grow rashes and lips will slightly swollen too. o.O This stuff very ‘poisonous’ for me.
Susah lah…eat prawns, sotong, crabs…no problem. Eat jellyfish, gatal. I eat anything. 😀
Ya… eat crustaceans no prob… but jellyfish kenot. My sister oso same… cannot take jellyfish… she’s worse off… if take jellyfish… her face will be reddish and swollen. The other day I went to eat midnight dimsum with my hubby. He oso ordered jellyfish… but I dare not touch. LOL!
Gosh! Maybe there was some problem with the preparation: http://hubpages.com/hub/Health-Benefits-of-Jellyfish
it look delicious! but i can’t remember the last time i eat it. not really a fan of it
Used to eat when I was young…and these days, we do get the pickled ones at Chinese dinners/restaurants and they’re quite nice. Wouldn’t say that I’m crazy about them though.
I love jellyfish! I always look forward to the first dish, the four seasons/cold platters whenever I attend a wedding dinner. Hahaha..
Your recipe sounds appetizing especially with lots of calamansi lime juice added!
It is nice. My missus loved it. I took some for my mum to eat – but she said it was too hot (chilli-hot)…so I gave it to the Indon maid and she liked it so much. Kept asking what it was and how I prepared it – said she never had that before back home and not even when she was working for a doctor and his family in KL.
wah… elin will be very proud of you.. hahahaa.. i like to eat those too.. very nice to NYEK!! The other day, this Taiwan restaurant served this as an appetizer.. quite common in many restaurants, in fact..
Yes, some Chinese restaurants give a small plate of this as an appetiser, instead of the usual groundnuts. Hah!!! Now, I’m Elin’s disciple…but can never hope to become as good as her, this too-ti… LOL!!! 😀
Never seen fresh jelly fish in the wet market over here. Only ate in the restaurant. Nice to chew……
Should have… Maybe you don’t know where to look. I’m sure they have it in the supermarkets too…but of course, these days, they’re not cheap.
OH NO!!! drooling for the 3rd one!!! soooo tempting!! jahat u!
Why me jahat? You like? Hahahahahahaha!!!! 😀
Wah… the outcome looks very appetizing wor! Drooling now!;D
Have a pleasant day!
LOL!!! Nice…and perhaps it will be nicer if I add crushed peanuts or toasted sesame… Next time, I’ll try…
Looks good. This is poor man’s food when I was young. Now, 5 stars hotels are serving them. Your preparation looks very good!
Poor man’s food? It’s now around RM10.00 a kilo at the market… My missus bought from a colleague, RM8…I think – not cheap anymore. 😦
I love the jellyfish and used to buy some and prepare them myself too. I was told that you can’t blanched with hot water, the jellyfish will become rubbery in texture? The way i do them was soaked in cold water then blanched with ice cold water and put in the colander to let all the water drain out, maybe there are different methods in preparing.??……normally had them with sesame oil mixed with the maggi seasoning sauce..yummy too :)!
I guess you’ll end up having a lot more if you do not blanch it with hot water. That whole lot shrank into just about a medium-sized bowl full after I poured hot water onto it. But no matter what, I would have to cut it very thinly – my missus sliced a bit to prepare it her own way…and I, being quite toothless, could not it it at all because the slices were not thin enough.
“tharn” – jelly fish in foo chow.
ahhhh…i love this so so so much!!!!!!! So long i never had this, although over here we can have it at chinese restaurant when you have suckling pig or the four season. But i still prefer this type, original taste.
I remember my mum would prepare the soya sauce with some lime juice, cut chili and we just dip it like that. SO YUMMY!!! Drool big time. :(:(:(
LOL!!! The old ways are always the best, right? We used to eat it like that up to sometime in the 80s, I think…and then we never ate it anymore as my dad could not chew. My mum’s sauce had pounded garlic – so our mouths would be so smelly after eating that. We called it “thak”, and that’s Hokkien, I guess. I don’t mind what they serve in restaurants these days…but I’m not really crazy about it.
Whoa! I never new that Jellyfish could be eaten. I know that in Spongebob they use jellyfish to get some jelly 😛
It is the first time that I knew someone who eats jellyfish.
No? Don’t you have that in the Philippines? All the islands seas around – I thought you would have a lot there, cheap. Maybe they’re all exported…as they would fetch good money from Chinese restaurants all over the world. Sometimes it’s like that – the local people do not get to eat as all of it is exported elsewhere…
I don’t know. Maybe there are many people who eats jellyfish but I just don’t know about it. ^_^
Or perhaps you’ve eaten it but you do not know what it is. But my parents’ maid from Indonesia said that they do not eat that at home. Well, it is quite expensivethese days…unlike before.
Yummy jellyfish..shhh..tell u hor…at wedding dinner there is always the 4 seasons dish…I always wallop the “jellyfish” punya hahaha
Hah!!! Another fan! Too bad you’re going off to KT or I can make some and keep in a bottle to bring over for you next week… 😉
Wow, so much trouble and time for the jellyfish! 😛 I certainly don’t have the patience for preparing it.. LOL!
What to do? Otherwise, everytime I open the fridge, I will see that big bag of jellyfish looking at me…until dunno when! 😦
i also like jelly fish but I’ve never thought of buying it and cooking it myself. Have always liked it at the Japanese restaurants!
I’m ok with jellyfish – don’t mind them but not really crazy about them…
hahaha, i am right!! there’s really nothing much you can do with that beside using it in the cold salad huh?? but i like that, yum yum~~
Yup…not many ways to prepare and definitely not possible to cook – will disappear completely, turn into water.
Jellyfish….I have never had any. All I know is even the little one can sting you. 😀
Oh? You don’t eat it as well. Ya…have to watch out for these when swimming in the sea – the sting can be so very painful! 😀
the outcome of the jellyfish look great. can you send some for me to try 😛 er.. my address at here is …..
by the way, you finish the dish yet?
Oh? You’re starving over there in Russia? Of course, there’s nothing left of it by now. Wait, ya! Wait till my missus happens to buy another bag and dumps it in the fridge… 😉
i like jellyfish. my mom served it for dinner sometime and she makes its just like ur mom STP….and its very chewy….the sambal must be spicy so that it would be more tasty n delicious! cheers!
That must be the standard recipe of our parents – really nice, I loved it too! 😉
Love the crunchy texture of jelly fish…..mmm taste so good with sambal!
If you have teeth! I would have to cut it so thinly that I would be able to eat without much chewing. Sobs!!! 😦
Is it sour and salty? If yes, sure I like it.. ya, the preparing time need so much patient..i like to eat, dont like to make it.
Not difficult to make actually…just that I’m not really crazy about it. Eat a little bit when going for Chinese dinners, more than enough for me already. It’s slightly sourish from the lime…and sweet from the sugar – like most pickles.