Strive my elegant but simple Ebi Shinjo recipe to benefit from the delicate style of this kaiseki dish in your day by day dinner or mild lunch. I’ll share my suggestions for making mild and fluffy shrimp dumplings in a fast and flavorful clear soup.
In the event you’ve stayed in a Japanese ryokan or dined at a proper kaiseki restaurant, you’ve in all probability loved ebi shinjo. With fluffy and delicate shrimp (ebi) dumplings in clear soup, it’s a chic and traditional dish that’s additionally easy sufficient to make at residence. Observe my simple Ebi Shinjo recipe to make these versatile dumplings for a home-cooked dinner, mild spring lunch, or celebratory meal.
Want extra inventive shrimp dishes? Strive my Shrimp Tempura, Japanese Pasta and With Shrimp and Asparagus, and Shrimp Fried Rice subsequent!
What’s Shinjo?
Shinjo (真薯, しんじょ) is a paste of mashed fish or shellfish, grated mountain yam, and egg white. It’s just like different fish paste merchandise like kamaboko and hanpen. The formed dumplings are steamed, fried, or boiled and normally served in soup or oden. Known as masho in some areas, shinjo has existed since a minimum of Japan’s Edo interval (1603–1868).
Why I Love This Recipe
- Simple to make – I exploit simply 4 elements for the dumplings, a easy kombu inventory for cooking them, and a savory dashi broth for the clear soup.
- Elegant and lightweight – With its fluffy texture, delicate style, and understated presentation, that is the quintessential Japanese delicacies that I usually crave.
- Good for seasonal cooking – Like every kaiseki dish, shinjo is a seasonal dish. It’s a versatile canvas for customizing with peak-harvest proteins, veggies, and garnishes.
- Versatile for any event – I like that this dish is equally at residence in an ichiju sansai meal and particular celebratory feast.
Substances for Ebi Shinjo
- Shrimp
- Mountain yam (nagaimo/yamaimo)
- Potato starch or cornstarch
- Grated ginger
- Kosher salt
- Kombu (dried kelp) and water – for the simmering inventory (kombu dashi)
- Dashi (Japanese soup inventory) – for the soup broth (awase dashi); I make a fast dashi with water and dashi packets
- Yuzu zest and mitsuba (Japanese parsley) or chives – optionally available garnish
Discover the printable recipe with measurements under.
Substitutions
- Shrimp: Strive white fish or hanpen if you happen to can’t have shrimp. We use hanpen for this dish in Japan, but it surely’s not simple to seek out within the U.S. until you’ve got a Japanese market close by.
- Mountain yam: Known as nagaimo/yamaimo in Japanese, you’ll find it at a Japanese or Asian market. Sadly, there isn’t a substitute for mountain yam on this recipe.
- Dashi: I like to recommend good-quality dashi for the soup broth (awase dashi). If in case you have 20–half-hour, you can also make Awase Dashi from scratch. For a handy time saver, I exploit dashi packets (discover them on Amazon) to make a fast 5-minute dashi that tastes practically pretty much as good. The third possibility is to make prompt inventory with dashi powder and water, but it surely’s not as flavorful.
Key Gear
The best way to Make Ebi Shinjo
Preparation
Step 1 – Prep the elements. Peel and reduce the mountain yam and grate the ginger. Peel, slice in half, and devein the shrimp.
Step 2 – Make the cooking inventory. Steep the dried kelp in chilly water for a minimum of half-hour, then slowly deliver it to a close to boil. Take away the kelp.
Step 3 – Course of the shrimp. Add salt and purée the shrimp in a meals processor for 30 seconds.
Step 4 – Purée the elements. Pulse the mountain yam, ginger, and potato starch with the shrimp ten occasions simply till it’s a easy paste.
Cooking
Step 5 – Form the dumplings. Use a cookie scoop and two tablespoons to type shrimp balls. Drop within the kombu inventory to simmer.
Step 6 – Cook dinner. Flip the shrimp balls often with chopsticks. They’re carried out once they flip pink and register 145ºF (63ºC) internally.
Assemble
Step 7 – Garnish and serve. Place one shrimp shinjo in a soup bowl (I used a lidded bowl) and add sizzling dashi broth. High with garnishes.
Nami’s Recipe Ideas
- Don’t rush making the simmering inventory – It takes time to extract the umami from dried kelp (kombu) for the cooking inventory. I like to recommend steeping it in water for a minimum of half-hour and heating it slowly over medium-low warmth.
- Aerate the shrimp paste – I pulse the meals processor simply ten occasions to mix all of the elements. This provides air to the paste and creates a light-weight and fluffy texture.
- Don’t overprocess – Purée simply till easy and nonetheless ethereal. Keep away from operating the meals processor too lengthy, which can make the combination pasty and dense.
- Type easy dumplings – I exploit two tablespoons to make spherical dumplings, scraping the shrimp paste from one spoon to the opposite to get a easy floor.
- Hold the cooking liquid clear – Whereas the dumplings prepare dinner, skim off the scum and fats floating on the floor. In the event you don’t, the particles will persist with the dumplings and switch to the soup bowls. We would like a transparent broth for a ravishing presentation.
Variations and Customizations
- Use seasonal seafood. Select the freshest fish or shellfish accessible on the market. I used shrimp immediately, because it’s handy and at all times accessible frozen. Nevertheless, I do love this recipe with peak-harvest crab or white fish to rejoice seasonality in my residence cooking.
- Add minced rooster. It boosts the protein and provides texture.
- Combine in greens. Chopped edamame, shiitake mushrooms, or seaweed add shade, taste, and fiber.
- Use seasonal garnishes. Change up the yuzu zest with citrus and herbs accessible in your space. In Japan, we add kinome (prickly ash) leaf, sudachi, and myoga (Japanese ginger). You can attempt Meyer lemon or lime zest, chives, and younger ginger.
- Form into patties. Type the paste right into a spherical patty and grill it like a hamburger steak. Grilled or fried shinjo makes a fantastic facet dish for bento lunches.
What to Serve with Ebi Shinjo
- As a fundamental dish – Cook dinner it in Oden for a sizzling and scrumptious pot of Japanese fish cake stew.
- As a facet dish – Add it to you menu along with your favourite Japanese fundamental dish like Ginger Pork.
- With salads – Pair it with Japanese Spinach Salad with Sesame Dressing.
- In a bento field – Fried or grilled shinjo makes a tasty facet dish in a lunchbox like Karaage Bento.
Storage and Reheating Ideas
To retailer: You’ll be able to maintain the leftover dumplings and dashi in separate hermetic containers and retailer within the fridge for as much as 3 days or within the freezer for a month.
To reheat: Defrost within the fridge in a single day and reheat till heat.
Regularly Requested Questions
The 2 shares—kombu dashi and awase dashi—serve totally different functions. You’ll use the kombu dashi because the simmering inventory to prepare dinner the dumplings. The awase dashi is the flavorful clear broth that you simply’ll serve into soup bowls to take pleasure in with the shrimp dumplings.
Though ebi shinjo is historically served in plain dashi broth to make a very elegant soup, you may definitely season it if you want with soy sauce, mild soy sauce, sake, salt, or your favourite seasoning.
Sure, you may fry the shrimp balls and drain them on paper towels or a wire rack. Serve along with your favourite dipping sauce, if you happen to’d like.
Sure, you may substitute prawns and make a prawn paste as a substitute.
For the Simmering Inventory (Kombu Dashi)
For the Soup Broth (Awase Dashi)
For the Garnish (optionally available)
Forestall your display screen from going darkish
Earlier than You Begin…
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Not less than half-hour earlier than beginning this recipe, soak 1 piece kombu (dried kelp) in 4 cups water.
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Now, collect all of the elements. On this recipe, you will make two shares—kombu dashi and awase dashi. Use the kombu dashi for the simmering inventory to prepare dinner the dumplings. The awase dashi is the clear soup broth that you’re going to serve into particular person bowls with the shrimp dumplings.
To Put together the Substances
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Peel the pores and skin off the mountain yam and measure 2.5 oz nagaimo/yamaimo (mountain yam) with a kitchen scale. Please weight it exactly so you do not introduce an excessive amount of liquid into the shrimp combination.
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Reduce the mountain yam into smaller items, roughly ½-inch (1.25-cm) cubes.
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Grate the ginger (I exploit a chrome steel grater from JOC Items). Measure ½ tsp ginger, with juice.
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Reduce 11 oz shrimp in half sideways and take away the vein.
To Make the Simmering Inventory (Kombu Dashi)
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In a medium pot, step by step deliver the soaked kombu and water to a simmer on medium-low warmth, which helps extract the umami from the kombu. If in case you have by no means made inventory utilizing dried kelp, try my Kombu Dashi tutorial.
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Proper earlier than the water reaches a simmer, take away the kombu. Now, you’ve got kombu dashi. You’ll be able to repurpose the spent kelp by making Kombu Tsukudani. Cowl the pot with a lid and put aside when you make the shrimp paste.
To Make the Shrimp Paste
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Put the shrimp and ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt within the bowl of a meals processor. Run it for 30 seconds.
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The chopped shrimp will start to interrupt down into paste however ought to nonetheless retain some small minced items.
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Subsequent, add the mountain yam, grated ginger, and 2 tsp potato starch or cornstarch. Utilizing the Pulse perform, pulse the combination 10 occasions. It will assist add air to the combination.
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Scrape down the perimeters of the processor bowl and examine the consistency. You are on the lookout for a light-weight, easy texture with no minced items.
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Proceed simply till it is easy. Don’t overprocess, or the combination will change into dense and heavy.
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Switch the shrimp paste to a bowl.
To Cook dinner the Shrimp Dumplings
To Serve
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Place one shrimp dumpling in every soup bowl (I used a lidded bowl from JOC Items). Ladle sizzling soup broth (awase dashi) to about midway up the dumpling. Garnish with optionally available yuzu zest and mitsuba (Japanese parsley) with a knot tied within the stem.
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Serve sizzling and revel in!