Sitka Sea Cucumber with Beach Asparagus — Chef Edith Johnson’s Alaskan Kitchen

What Is Sea Cucumber, Exactly?

Cleaned Sea Cucumber

If you've never encountered sea cucumber before, your first reaction will likely be the same as mine: confusion, followed by mild alarm. It's a marine animal — not a plant, not a fish — found in coastal waters across the Pacific and particularly abundant in Southeast Alaska. It looks like something that shouldn't exist. It's dark, lumpy, and when you first pick it up, it does exactly what its name implies: it's slippery, yielding, and slimy in a way that makes you question your life choices.

Most people who encounter sea cucumber in the wild throw it back, ignore it, or actively avoid it. Commercial fishing operations in Alaska harvest it primarily for export to Asian markets, where it's considered a delicacy and commands serious prices. Domestically it's almost unknown outside of specialty seafood restaurants and the occasional curious forager.

That's a shame, because cooked correctly it's one of the more unusual and satisfying things you can eat from the sea.

The meat inside is white, firm, and clean-tasting. The texture — and this is the key word for sea cucumber — is all about timing. Cook it right and it's tender in a way that genuinely surprises you. Tender like the best piece of calamari you've ever had, except without the rubbery punishment that usually comes from a moment's inattention. Cook it wrong and it's exactly like the worst calamari you've ever had — tough, chewy, and a reminder that some culinary experiments should stay in the Pacific.

Edith's approach is clean and fast: cast iron, high heat, beach asparagus for a companion, white wine for the sauce. The whole thing comes together in under ten minutes once the pan is hot. The challenge — and the skill — is in knowing exactly when to stop.

Foraging Beach Asparagus in Sitka

One of the things that makes this dish so specific to Southeast Alaska is the beach asparagus. You might know it as sea beans, samphire, or sea pickle, depending on where you're from — it's the same plant, a succulent green that grows in brackish marshes and tidal zones along the Pacific coast. In Sitka it's common enough that Edith foraged it specifically for this cook.

The flavor is exactly what the name suggests: salty, bright, and faintly sweet, like cucumber got a briny upgrade. It grows in thin stalks that look like tiny fingers of asparagus, and it needs almost no seasoning because it brings its own. If anything, you want to hold the salt until you taste the finished dish — the beach asparagus will do most of that work for you.

If you're not in Southeast Alaska, don't give up on this recipe. Sea beans have become increasingly available at specialty grocery stores and farmers markets across the country, particularly on the West Coast. Whole Foods, better seafood markets, and Asian grocery stores often carry them, especially in late spring and summer when they're in season. If you can't find sea beans at all, regular asparagus tips work as a substitute — just add a pinch of salt to compensate for what you lose in natural brininess.

The sea cucumber is trickier to source if you're not in Alaska. Asian grocery stores are your best bet — both fresh and frozen sea cucumber are commonly available, and dried sea cucumber can be rehydrated over several days. The flavor profile is slightly different from fresh-caught, but the technique is the same.

The Cook: Cast Iron, Open Flame, and a Bear

What I remember most about this cook is that we were doing it outdoors, on a cast iron skillet over an actual open fire, and at some point during the sauté there was a bear in the background. Just a bear. Moving through the trees. Edith noted it, I noted it, and then we all went back to watching the pan because the sea cucumber was getting close.

That's the kind of focus this dish demands. Once the sea cucumber hits the hot pan, your attention cannot wander. This is not a dish you make while checking your phone or topping off someone's wine. The window between perfectly tender and overcooked is measured in seconds, not minutes. When the sea cucumber turns opaque — really commits to that color change — you pull it. Right then. Not a moment later.

The rest of the dish is generous in timing. The aromatics can take their time. The beach asparagus has a comfortable window. The white wine can reduce at whatever pace suits you. But once the sea cucumber goes in, the clock is running.

Edith Johnson's Sitka Sea Cucumber with Beach Asparagus

Serves 2 | As featured on Dead Meat Season 9, "My Sitka" — airing Mondays at 8:30 PM ET on Outdoor Channel

Ingredients

• 1 lb sea cucumber, cleaned, de-slimed, and cut into 1–2 inch pieces
• 1 cup beach asparagus (sea beans/samphire/sea pickle)
• ½ yellow onion, sliced thin
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• ¼ cup dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons butter or neutral oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Clean the sea cucumber thoroughly. Rinse off all the slime and pat the pieces completely dry with paper towels. This step matters more than people expect. If there's moisture on the surface, the sea cucumber will steam in the pan instead of searing, and you'll lose the texture and color you're after. Bone dry before it hits the heat.

2. Get the cast iron very hot. Place your skillet over high heat and let it get to temperature — you want it smoking before anything goes in. Add the butter or oil. High heat is what gives you tender sea cucumber. Low heat gives you rubber.

3. Sauté the aromatics. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until softened and just starting to take on color, about two minutes. Add the white wine and let it reduce by roughly half, scraping up any fond from the bottom of the pan. This is your flavor base.

4. Add the beach asparagus. Toss the beach asparagus into the pan and coat it with the onion and wine mixture. Do not add salt yet — the asparagus is naturally saline and will season the dish on its own. Cook for 60 to 90 seconds, keeping it bright and slightly crisp. You want it to retain some texture.

5. Add the sea cucumber — and watch it. Add the sea cucumber pieces to the pan and toss everything together. Now pay attention. Watch the sea cucumber closely. The moment it turns opaque throughout — committed, uniform, no translucency — pull the pan off the heat immediately. This takes 60 to 90 seconds at high heat. Do not let it go further. Overcooked sea cucumber is tough like calamari that went too long. Perfectly cooked sea cucumber is extraordinarily tender.

6. Taste and season. Before reaching for the salt, taste the dish. The beach asparagus will have seasoned it more than you expect. Add salt and pepper if needed, but go easy.

7. Plate and serve immediately. This is not a dish that holds or reheats. The sea cucumber will continue cooking from residual heat even off the flame. Eat it now, ideally somewhere near a coastline with a bottle of good bourbon nearby.

Scott's Notes

A few things I learned watching Edith work that I'd pass along:

On texture: Think of sea cucumber exactly like calamari. The enemy is time. If someone at the table gets a tough piece, it didn't need a longer cook — it needed a shorter one. The only direction is less.

On sourcing: The best sea cucumber for this recipe is fresh Pacific sea cucumber from Alaska or the Pacific Northwest. If you're buying frozen, thaw it completely and dry it thoroughly before cooking. Dried sea cucumber needs 3 to 5 days of soaking in the refrigerator, changing the water daily, before it's ready to cook.

On the white wine: Use a wine you'd drink. Nothing oaky. A crisp Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio works well. You're not making a cream sauce — you just want brightness and acidity in the base.

On the bear: It was fine. We ate well. The bourbon helped.

About Chef Edith Johnson

Edith Johnson is the chef-owner of Ludwig's Bistro in Sitka, Alaska — a Mediterranean-influenced restaurant committed to sourcing from Southeast Alaska's remarkable coastline and surrounding wilderness. She's one of those chefs who cooks with the authority that comes from genuinely knowing her ingredients from the water to the plate. Watch her in action on Dead Meat Season 9 when the show films in Sitka — she makes cleaning sea cucumber look like the most natural thing in the world, because for her, it is.

Dead Meat airs Mondays at 8:30 PM ET on Outdoor Channel. Catch the "My Sitka" episode and watch more at OutdoorChannel.com.