This crab sunomono makes the perfect side dish with refreshing and crunchy cucumber, sweet crab meat, and toasted sesame seeds.
One cookbook that I turn to frequently for inspiration is Rintaro by chef Sylvan Mishima Brackett. Since our Japan trip last summer, I’ve wanted to recreate many of the dishes we enjoyed and was happy to find them in the Rintaro cookbook. One of my favorite memories was randomly walking into a nondescript restaurant in Gion Corner where they served family style dinner. The meal was incredibly comforting with duck sukiyaki, grilled meat skewers, tempura, and an assortment of side dishes.
One side dish that stood out was the kyuri no sunomono, or Japanese cucumber salad. It was incredibly refreshing after not eating veggies for a couple days. Sunomono translates to “vinegared thing” which features a rice vinegar dressing and any vegetables. The Rintaro cookbook has 3 different sunomono recipes and given my love for crabs, I decided to try the crab sunomono. The cucumber was refreshing and crunchy with sweet crab meat and toasted sesame seeds. When crab isn’t in season, I make the cucumber sunomono to eat with miso cod, tonkatsu, and other dishes where something tangy is welcomed.
Ingredient Notes
- Cucumber: I used Japanese cucumber for the crab sunomono but you can use any thin skin variety like Persian or English cucumbers.
- Crab: for the crab, I’ve made it both with Dungeness and snow crabs. They both taste great with the sunomono. Dungeness takes a bit more work to remove the meat compared to the snow crabs.
How to Make Sunomono
- Make the dashi and amazu and let them cool down. Amazu is a combination of rice wine vinegar, sugar, and water.
- Prepare the cucumber by slicing them thinly with a mandoline. Add salt and let the salt draw out the water to concentrate the flavor and give the cucumber a nice crunch texture. Let the sunomono sit for 5 minutes.
- Make the dressing with amazu, dashi, and pinch of salt.
- Gently squeeze out excess water from the cucumber and add it to the dressing.
- Plate the sunomono by piling the cucumber on a plate, top with crab meat, and garnish with toasted sesame seeds.
Make Ahead and Storage
Both the dashi and amazu can be made 2 days in advanced and refrigerated. It's best to prepare the cucumber the day you plan on serving the crab sunomono.
For more Japanese food inspiration:
Crab Sunomono
Ingredients
Amazu
- ¼ cup rice wine vinegar
- ¼ cup water
- 1 ½ tablespoons sugar
Sunomono
- 8-10 ounces crab meat (Dungeness, snow crab, rock crab)
- 1 pound Japanese cucumbers, thinly sliced with mandoline
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
Dressing
- ½ cup amazu (from above)
- ¼ cup dashi
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- To make amazu, bring water, vinegar, and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove pan from heat and let cool to room temperature. Transfer amazu to a lidded jar and refrigerate until cold.
- To make the dressing, combine amazu, dashi, and a pinch of salt. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Prepare a steamer, add the snow crabs, and steam for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. When they are cool enough to handle, remove the crab meat from the shell.
- In a small frying pan, add sesame seeds and toast on low heat until golden, stirring them occasionally to prevent burning, about 3-4 minutes.
- Use a mandoline or sharp knife, slice the cucumbers thinly as you can and place them in a large bowl. Toss cucumber with 2 teaspoons of salt and let sit for 5 minutes.
- Massage the cucumber then gently squeeze handfuls of cucumbers to remove the water. Transfer squeezed cucumbers to a clean bowl. Toss the cucumbers with the chilled dressing.
- Divide and pile the cucumbers on 4 serving plates. Top with snow crabs and garnish with toasted sesame seeds.
Notes
- Amazu will keep in the fridge for 2 months.
Colleen
Love sunomono. This is my first time having it with crab. Won't be my last time.