Fresh Yam Salad

 

Ingredients:

Japanese Fresh Yam - remove skin and cut into thick shreds (sensitive hand better put gloves on)

Lettuce - salad size

Cucumber - sliced

Cherry Tomatoes - halves

Okra - blanch 1 min, pour to ice water, then drain and dry, slanted slice into half

Shredded Seaweeds

Rice Crispy or roasted sesame

Sesame salad dressing of your choice

How to Make:

mix all together with the amount of sesame salad dressing you prefer, then sprinkle with shredded seaweeds, rice crispy or roasted sesame.

Love this crunchy and nutritious salad. Enjoy!

Burdock & Carrot Salad

 

* credits to @jeffreyveggielife, my vegan cuisine teacher

Ingredients:

Burdock 90g - rub clean and slice

Carrot 90 g - clean, remove skin and slice

Seasoned Monkey Mushroom 80g - pan fried and slice (I used the one which is frozen and purchased from Kowloon City 廣益行)

大葉 (looks like Shiso leaves, but bigger in size) - roll it up and slice

Japanese Mustard (水菜） rinse and spin cut into salad size

pickled plums - remove seeds and mash it

Sesame - 3tbsp - grinded

Salad Sauce:

Soy Sauce x 2tbsp （I used Kikoman 萬字牌 特選丸大豆減鹽)

Brown Sugar (or monk fruit sugar) x 1.5 tbsp

mirin x 2 tbsp

How to Make it:

1. Cook the sauce. Once boiled, turn to medium low heat and cook for 5 min. Then set aside to a bowl.

2. Heat up a pan, add sesame oil and stir fry the burdocks and carrots in medium fire, can add 1-2tbsp of water, until they are cooked - "crunchy soft".

3. Add the cooked burdock and carrots to the bowl with the salad sauce. Sprinkle with 2/3 of the grinded sesame on top. Cover with cling wrap and place to fridge.

4. Once cooled and ready to eat, take out the bowl from the fridge, add the mashed pickled plums, the sliced shiso leaves, the sliced Monkey Mushrooms and the Japanese Mustard and mix well.

5. Use hand to plate on serving dish or bowl, sprinkle the remaining grinded sesame on top.

Enjoy!

Avocado and Crabmeat Salad with Caviar

 Ingredients:

Avocado

Crabmeat, cooked and drained of water

Lemon juice

Caviar

Crispy bread

Edible flowers

Green salad

Method:

1. Half the avocado. Scoop out avocado and retain the shell of the avocado nicely.

2. Mash the avocado and add a dash of lemon juice. Then add cooked crabmeat. Mix well and season with salt and pepper to your liking.

3. Fill the avocado shell with this avocado and crabmeat mixture and level on top. Place in fridge for a while.

4. When ready to serve, arrange salad (mixed with extra virgin oil or salad dressing of your choice) on bottom of serving plate. Place stuffed avocado on top. Then spoon caviar on top of avocado. Decorate with edible flowers and crispy bread on top of avocado. Can prepare some sour cream on the side too.

Enjoy!

Summer Mango and Crab Salad

 

Ingredients:

Crabmeat using crab of your choice

Mango (prefer Philippines mango)

Avocado

Cucumber

Lemon juice

Sesame dressing

Kewpi Mayonnaise

Basil or minced chives

Salt & pepper

Method:

1. Cooked crab and take out crab meat. Mindful of the soft shells be all removed. put in a sieve to drain out excess water.

2. Cut mango into dices and put to sieve in a while to drain out excess juice.

3. Avocado cut in dices and squeeze some lemon juice to prevent it from getting black.

3. Cucumber clean and rinse clean. Add some salt and put aside for a while so as to remove excess water. Then thinly slice it.

4. Mix the diced avocado with some sesame dressing.

5. Mix the crabmeat with a dash of lemon juice, some salt and pepper and a little bit of mayo. These are to add some flavour but main goal is to retain fresh taste of the crab meat.

Plating:

1. Lightly oil the inside of a plating ring with olive oil. Cover the bottom and side with a cling wrap.

2. Place sliced cucumber on top of the cling wrap -as bottom layer inside the ring.

3. Then spoon diced mango on top of cucumber slices.

4. Then spoon diced avocado on top of mango. Gently push down.

5. Then spoon crabmeat on top of avocado and gently push down.

6. Keep in fridge for a while.

7. When ready to serve, hold plating ring with the cling wrap and place it on top of a serving plate. Gently slide away the cling wrap, then take up the plating ring.

8. If using king crab, you can put a long size of crab meat on top and garnish with basil or minced chives.

Enjoy with a glass of white wine or champagne!

Watermelon Salad

* recipe adopted from Gordon Ramsay

Ingredients:

Watermelon - cut into cubes
Cucumber - cut into cubes
fetacheese - break into cubes
cherry tomatoes - cut into halves
rocket leaves
pecan - toasted in hot pan with a sprinkle of salt
lemon -rolled the lemon on table top, cut into half horizontally and squeeze out lemon juice
Mint leaves - shredded
balsamic vinegar and a dash of olive oil

How to Make:

1. mix rocket leaves with a dash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar first.

2. add cucumber and tomatoes to the above mix.

3. then add water melon and mint.

4. add lemon juice for the final mix.

5. sprinkle toasted pecan on top.

A refreshing salad best for summer time! Enjoy!

Burdock, Carrot and Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

Organic Carrot - wash, wipe dry and shredded
Burdock - wash, use back of knife to remove skin, then shredded
Chicken thighs - steam until cooked. After cool down, shredded **
Sesame  - some for grinding
Sesame - some for garnish on top
Sesame Oil - choose a fragrant one
Sesame Salad Dressing of your choice

** for Vegetarian version, replace chicken with shredded 素雞

How to Make:

1. Stir fried the burdock in a frying pan adding a dash of soy sauce, mirin, Japanese cooking wine and sugar - i think around 5 minutes.

2. Add the shredded carrots to the frying pan, mix well with burdock for around 2 minutes. As we want to keep these all crunchy.

3. Drain the water/oil from the above mixture. Once cool down, can keep at fridge.

4. Before serving, best to take them out from fridge for a short time so they will not be too cold. Mix the shredded chicken thighs, the burdock and carrot mixture with the grounded sesame, sesame oil and sesame salad dressing to your liking. Garnish sesame on top and ready to serve.

Enjoy with a nice glass of sake!

Thai Salad (Yam Dawk Kajawn)

* I learned to make this dish at Bangkok Mandarin Oriental Cooking School. A very simple and refreshing salad with a Thai touch!

Ingredients (Serves approx 6-8):
- Thai Big Red Chilli x 1 - seeded and slice thinly. (if prefer this to be hot, add 1 small chilli too!)
- Coriander roots x 2 tsp - finely chopped (i was not able to get any dry coriander roots in Wanchai Thai grocery store. I used the fresh coriander with roots. Just wash the roots thorougly under runnign water, then wipe dry and finely chopped them)
- Garlic - sliced x 2 tsp
- Palm Sugar x 4 tbsp - use a knife to roughly chop them into smaller pieces.
- Fish Sauce x 6 tbsp (the cooking school uses the fish sauce with the Scale brand. I was able to get the same from the Wanchai Thai grocery store)
- Fresh Coconut Cream - boiled x 1/2 cup, then let it cool down. (I am not able to get coconut cream in Wanchai market, but only fresh coconut milk, which is still fine)
- Lime juice - from approx 2 big limes
- Cowslip flowers, picked and blanched (can be replaced with cauliflower and broccoli - cut into slim florets)
- Chicken thighs x 3 - boiled and shredded
- Prawns x 20 - boiled, shelled, deveined and cut lengthwise
- Peanuts, roasted and crushed
- Crisp-fried garlic

How to Make:
1. To make the dressing, pound the sliced chilies and coriander roots and garlic in a mortar until fine and pasty like. (be patient as it takes some strength from my arm as well as some time!)

2. Add the palm sugar to the paste and mix thoroughly.

3. Pour the mixture to a big bowl, then add the fish sauce, lime juice and coconut cream and mix well. Set aside in a cool place.

4. Blanch the cowslip flowers or the cauliflower/broccoli florets for 1-2 min and then rinse with cold water. Drain well and set aside. -> make sure they remain crunchy.

5. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cowslip flowers or the cauliflower/broccoli florets with the shredded chicken and the prawns. Add some dressing and mix well. Fill a bowl with a shape you like with the mixture, then put the bowl against the serving plate, Remove the bowl carefully to reveal the salad (with the shape of the bowl), then pour remaining dressing on the side.

6. Sprinkle the top with the crushed peanuts and the crisp-fried garlic and serve!

* very nice to pair with a glass of chilled champagne! Enjoy!

CNY Salad

* This is what i called the "lo hei" salad, sounds good for CNY indeed, especially when i use 8 ingredients, the number representing fortunes in chinese!
** easy to make, just need time and patience to prepare all 8 ingredients in advance.

Ingredients:

1. Canned abalone ( i used the 1 can 1 abalone type as the abalone is big enough to cut out longer slices. Boil the whole can in hot water for 4-6 hours)

2. chicken slices (steam chicken and shred into slices by hand after cool down)

3. Prawns (cook in hot water, then remove shells and heads and cut into half from back from prawn)

4. Eggs - mix eggs in bowl, then add to hot pan like omelette, when brown, turn over to other side and cook until brown, Take out and cool down, then cut into slices.

5. Bean curd stick - blanch in hot water for 5 min then cut into slices after cool down

6. Carrots - cut them into slices then blanch in hot water for 3-4 minutes.

7. Cucumber - cut them into slices.

8. Ham - cut them into slices.

How to Make:
1. after preparing the above ingredients and have them chill in fridge for a while, line up in a big dish as shown above.

2. When ready to serve and eat, spoon the salad dressing you like all over and then mix well with fork or chopsticks, For myself, i think japanese sesame salad tasting goes well!

This salad represents some good fortune and luck. It is completely without any salt! you can replace any ingredients with anything else you like eg. ham to lettuce slices!

Enjoy!

Alaska Crab Salad

This is really easy to do as long as you are willing to devote some time and stand in the kitchen for quite a while and are willing to pay for the expensive cost for a fresh Alaska Crab!!

Ingredients: (for 12 persons)

Fresh Alaska Crab x 1 (steamed or boiled, with the crab meat all removed from shells)

Avocado (please choose the ripe ones) - around 7pc - cut into cubes

Tomatoes (please choose the italian ones or the ones which you think are sweet and tasty) - remove skin using method stated below, then cut into
cubes and drain the tomato juice

Fresh Chives - minced

lemon/ mayo/ sesame dressing/ lemon olive oil


How to make:

1. If you are not arranging directly on plate but is preparing in advance, cover the bottom of each stainless steel cylinder with plastic wrap and place the 12 cyliners in a tray.

2. Mix the avocado cubes with mayo to a consistency you desired and spoon them into the base of the cylinder.

3. Mix the tomatoes cubes with sesame dressing to a consistency you desired and spoon them above the avocadoes layer. Try avoid spooning the juice into the cylinder though.

4. Use your hand to tear the crab meat to bite size and mix with a splash of lemon juice, then mayo to a consistency you desired and spoon them above the tomatoes layer.

5. Wrap the whole tray with the 12 cylinders arranged in the fridge.

6. When you are ready to serve, place one cylinder on one plate and remove the plastic wrap at the bottom of the cylinder bu sliding it carefully away from the plate, then remove the cylinder.

7. Add some a few drops of lemon olive oil on top of the crab layer then sprinkle with the minced chives and serve!!

This presentation looks professional but is so easy to make anyone can do this. Enjoy!!

Removing Tomatoes Skin:
a. lightly cut a cross around the tomato skin.
b. place them in boiling water for 30 seconds and immediately place them in a ice water bath.
-> the skin tear off itself easily.

Tomato Salad

An easy dish - anyone can make it and tomato is best for health!

Ingredients:-
Cucumber x 1 pc
Dessert Tomato x 1 pc (this is originally from Japan. But not easy to get and even if you can nowadays, not sure if everyone if comfortable to eat veggies from Japan :( replace with Italian tomato if necessary.)
Sesame salad dressing

How to prepare this:
1. Boil a pot of water.
2. Wash the tomato and gently make a cross cut over the tomato.
3. Once water is boiled, switch off gas and put tomtao inside hot water for 1 min.
4. Remove tomato and soak in ice water for 2 min. Peel off skin gently.
5. Pat dry and put to ziploc bag and place in refrigerator before serving time.
6. For the cucumber, wash and wipe dry, Then peel off some skin but not all. Slice as thin as possible and put back in refrigerator.
7. When you are ready to serve, place sesame salad sauce on the bottom of the plate, Then add the sliced cucumber to make a flower shape and lastly, tomato on top of the cucumber!

Easy! if you fancy something prettier, place a mint leaf at the top of the tomato!