The Best Seafood Online Tips for Raw Seafood Dishes

What do ceviche, sashimi and crudo and capacio have in common? If you watch the cooking shows on the Food Network, you know the answer to this: they’re all dishes that feature fresh, raw seafood (or other meat, in some cases). They’re also best made with the freshest fish possible. Until fairly recently, that meant you were out of luck if you didn’t live close to the ocean. These days, though, you can easily order fresh albacore, live Dungeness crabs, fresh king salmon, diver scallops and from an online seafood market, fresh off the boat. If you’re ready to enjoy the flavors of seafood as they were meant to be tasted, without the intervention of fire and heat, these tips will get you started in the right direction with sushi, sashimi, ceviche, carpacio, crudo and other raw seafood dishes.

Only Serve the Freshest Seafood Raw

Freshness is vital when you’re serving food raw. Buy from an online seafood market that will ship out only products from today’s catch, and ship them out on the same day. Check their packaging and shipping information to make sure that they ship your live crabs, swordfish steaks, king salmon or what have you on ice – and with enough ice to keep your purchase chilled until it reaches your doorstep.

Start with the Easy Stuff

Those wafer-thin slices of diver scallops are gorgeous – but they’re not for the inexperienced. Start with a more forgiving fish, like albacore tuna or king salmon, and choose a dish that doesn’t rely so much on precision knifework. Ceviche and tartare are user-friendly raw seafood dishes. Just dice and toss with condiments. Save the sashimi fans for when you’ve had a bit of practice slicing raw albacore and fresh king salmon.

Chill Out

Warm fish is hard to slice. It gets mushy and tears easily. Keep your fish in the refrigerator on ice until you’re ready to start slicing – preferably on the bottom shelf where it’s nice and cold. The colder the fish, the easier it will be to get a thin, even slice for sashimi or crudo.

Sharpen Your Knives

Razor-sharp. Honed to the perfect edge sharp. You’ll need it that sharp if you’re going to cut thin slices from delicate-fleshed fish, diver scallops or abalone.

Don’t Buy King Salmon – Or Any Other Sushi Fish – Pre-sliced

You can often buy fish pre-sliced for sashimi at Asian markets. Don’t. The more surface area is exposed, the more quickly the fish’s flavor will decay. If you’re looking for baby steps, find an online seafood market that sells pre-trimmed albacore or buy king salmon ready for slicing.

Always Work with Dry Scallops

If you’re doing a scallop ceviche, crudo or other raw scallop dish, always work with dry scallops – that is, diver scallops that have not had water added to keep them fresh longer. You can usually find diver scallops dry at fish market that sells seafood online.