Korean Scallion Salad (Pa-Muchim)

This scallion salad is usually served along side Korean barbeque in a Korean restaurant.  You can wrap this and the barbeque meat in a green lettuce leaf and eat it together.  I made this to serve it with my Hanainese chicken because I thought it would go well together with the ginger sauce and chili.  This scallion salad was indeed delicious and it would pair well with any meat dishes.

I think it is best to make this on the day you want to serve it and finish it in the same day.

I adapted this recipe from a Korean cookbook that I borrowed from my local library in which I forgot to copy down the title of the book.  It is a cookbook featured Korean chefs in Korean restaurants around LA, California.

Ingredients:

5 scallions

1 tsp. red pepper powder

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/4 tsp. soy sauce

1/4 tsp. granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. sesame oil

1/2 tsp. toasted sesame seeds

Method:

Wash each scallion and pat dry with paper towel.  Trim both ends of each scallion, then cut into 3-inch pieces and then finely cut again lengthwise (scallions are very slippery, so use caution while cutting).  Put the scallions in a bowl and add red pepper powder, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil. and sesame seeds, and toss to mix.  Transfer to a serving plate.

Mu- Saengchae (Spicy Korean Radish )

I saw this dish in a Korean cookbook and immediately felt a urge to make it at home.  I combined two recipes together to bring out the best spicy Korean radish dish for myself.  I liked this as it was spicy and went well with rice or jajangmyeon.

Usually this is served as a Korean side dish called Banchan (반찬).  I ate it with rice and toasted seaweed, made Korean pancake, made omelet with it, added it in my Korean spicy instant noodle, or just have it as a side dish to my everyday meal.  Surprisingly my little Edda loves this and she didn't complaint that this was spicy.  I guess I trained them well.  Evy on the other hand, doesn't like this banchan.

Ingredients:

1- 1.5 lb Korean radishes, julienned into 2-inch long strips

1 tsp. salt

3 scallions, cut into 2-inch pieces

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 1-inch piece of ginger, grated

2 Tbsp. red pepper powder

2 tsp. granulated sugar

1 Tbsp. pure sesame oil

1 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

1 tsp. soy sauce

Method:

1.  Put julienned radishes into a big bowl.  Add in 1 tsp. of salt, mix well and let it sit for 30 minutes.  Drain and gently squeeze the water out.  Place in another bowl.

2.  Add in cut scallion and the rest of the ingredients.  Mix well with your hands (wear a glove) or until the radishes are red from the red pepper powder.

3.  Keep in the refrigerator and serve as a cold side dish.  Should be able to keep up to two weeks in the refrigerator.

Homemade Yee Sang for Chinese New Year (魚生)

Yee Sang, Yusheng, 魚生 or Prosperity Toss is enjoyed throughout the 15 days of Chinese New Year.  It is a symbol of abundance, vigor and prosperity as the fish tossing in this salad means 余升 and 年年有余.  The waiter would add each ingredient and says an auspicious phrase related to that ingredient and then everyone would stand up and toss the yusheng together while saying auspicious wishes.  It is believed that the higher you toss, it would bring you higher growth in wealth and fortunes. This dish is mainly enjoyed by the Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia.  I talked to Chinese from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan before and they have no clue what is 魚生.  Whereas if you mention this dish with people from Malaysia or Singapore, everyone knows what it is.  This dish is a must have and very popular during Chinese New Year, in fact, it only served during or around Chinese New Year.  You can order it in a restaurant or "to go" the ready made packet to bring it home.

We living in the U.S. or overseas have no such luck as in order it in a restaurant or buy it at a store.  But fear not, we can enjoy Yee Sang (魚生) too.  Frankly it is not difficult to make at all.  The only tedious part is the slicing of the vegetable thinly.  I made this easy version so it would be easy for all of us.  :-P  Everything can be bought in the Asian store such as ground toasted peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, wonton wrapper (or better yet the ready to eat fried wonton crackers), pickled ginger, ready to eat jelly fish etc.  I used jelly fish because we don't eat raw fish in the house.  Of course you can use any raw fish you like or smoke salmon, etc, etc.  You can even add pomelo or other ingredients you can think of.

 

I actually have thinly sliced romaine lettuce underneath the cilantro, scallion, pickled ginger and seaweed.  My plate was too small thus I had to pile everything up a level.  My carrot was actually got covered underneath too.  If you have sharp eyes, you will notice that my crunchy doesn't really look like fried wonton.  Well, you were right, because I was out of it and thus I used the spring roll wrapper.  It was crispy but turned soft quickly when mixed together as it was very thin you see, so the wonton skin is recommended.  I tried to make the nam yee cracker from scratch but failed as it turned soft when cold.  Later I did toast them in the toaster oven to crisp it again for the yee sang when the spring roll crunchy turned soft.  And it worked!

This simple yee sang is delicious, try it yourself and feedback to me ya!

Today is also the 7th day of CNY, which is everyone birthday, so Happy Birthday to all of us! 人日快乐!

Sauce recipe adapted from Lily's blog with slight modification.  Thanks Lily!

Ingredients for Yee Sang:

1/2 Korean radish (the round one) or jicama or both, finely shredded

1 large carrot, finely shredded

3 scallions, finely shredded

A bunch of cilantro, take just the leaves

4 pieces of romaine lettuce, thinly sliced

1 packet of jelly fish, ready to eat, seasoned per packet instruction, cut

Some red pickled ginger strips (store bought in bottle, Wel-Pac Kizami, you need to get this red one for the color even though it's more expensive)

Fried crunchy wonton skin, crushed before adding

Some seaweeds, torn into small pieces
 

Yee Sang sauce:

1/3 cup canola oil + 1 tsp. sesame oil.

1/2 cup ground toasted peanuts

2 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

Sauce, mix well together:

6 Tbsp. LKK plum sauce

1/2 Tbsp. LKK Hoisin sauce

1/4 tsp. white pepper

1/4 tsp. 5 spice powder

2 tsp. lime juice

Method:

1.  Take the wonton wrapper, cut into strips and deep-fried until golden brown.  Drain on paper towel.  Set aside to be use later.  Or skip this step if you buy the ready to eat fried wonton crackers.

2.  Wash and prepare the vegetable by thinly slicing them.  Set aside.

3.  Prepare the combined sauce for the yee sang.

4.  Arrange the jelly fish and all the rest of the veggies on a round plate.  Prepare the sauce, oil, peanuts, sesame seeds and crunchy on the side.

5.  When ready to "lao sang", add in the peanuts, sesame seeds, and then the sauce and oil.  Lastly, crush the crunchy and place it on top and then "lao sang" or mix it well together with chopsticks.  Enjoy!

Use of Leftovers 1: Cucumber Rojak

This is the leftovers from the satay dinner the other day. Some homemade compressed rice, tiny bit of shallots and a small bowl of cut cucumbers. For the cucumber, it was fairly easy to turn it into another dish of it's own. Scroll down to see what I did with it.



I turned it into a cold and refreshing cucumber rojak with the ready made CKC satay sauce. I always have some toasted ground peanuts and sesame seeds in my freezer. So making this dish is as easy as 123. I do love to store some ready made rojak sauce in my pantry just in case I have a craving or some leftover cucumbers. Of course you can now order this sauce at the convenience of your home, in front of your computer at MyTasteOfAsia.com.

Stay tuned to see how I transform the compressed rice and shallots into! Part 2 coming up!

Salad with Sun Ripened Tomatoes and Dried Apricot

I need to lose some weight that I gained in Malaysia. So what is the best healthy choice for me to do so? I thought salad for lunch might be just it (of course plus exercise too). So easy to prepare and sure look like a healthy meal. I received two bottles of free Kraft salad dressing from Kraft Food. So it sure comes in handy for my salad. I used the Light Raspberry Vinaigrette with reduced fat dressing with the prewashed iceberg garden salad that I bought in the grocery store. My added touch would be the sliced sun ripened tomatoes and dried apricot in my salad.

By the way, anyone knows the difference between sundried tomatoes and sun ripened tomatoes? When I did the purchase I thought I was buying the sundried tomatoes until I saw the name on the packet later. Are they the same thing?

p/s
Dear Readers,
Happy 4th of July and Happy BBQing where ever you are and enjoy the Fireworks!

Japanese Seaweed Salad

I bought myself a packet of dried seaweed (Dolkak-Cham Miyuk) at H-Mart while shopping with Lily the other day. She told me a little bit would do because it expands a lot. So, I just used a scissor to cut a small corner off and soaked it in hot water. After 30 minutes, when I opened the cover, whoa! it really EXPAND A LOT and thus I left with extra seaweed. I only need about 1/2 cup for my Gochujang tofu soup. So, what about the rest of the seaweed? I need to do something with it and thus turned it into the seaweed salad that I concocted myself.





Salad Dressing for about 3/4 cup of seaweed:

1 tsp. sesame paste
3/4 tsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. black vinegar
1 tsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. of Extra Virgin Olive oil

Sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds

(Estimation only, so season to taste!)

This seaweed is high in calcium and iron and really good for us. Not to say, it tasted very good too, slightly chewy yet soft and so good in Sundubu Jjgae! It's great added in the cold noodle or just eaten with a simple salad dressing like the above.

My Simple Rojak

Rojak is a Malaysian salad. The sauce is mainly made of shrimp paste, chili and belacan. I named it my simple rojak because of the limited ingredients, I only had jicama and seedless cucumber. I used the ready-made rojak sauce from CKC and it was delicious as it tasted very authentic and a wee bit spicy. I topped mine with extra ground peanuts and toasted sesame seeds.

Want a bite of my jicama?

P/s It definitely need "grilled you char kway", fried tofu, mango, pineapple and green papaya to make it more "shiok"! But I have none yet very tham jiak (glutton) and thus this "bor liao" (simple) version. :P

Pusiva's Acar

As you all probably know, I always in search of easy recipe to cook or bake. The other day when I browsed through Pusiva's blog, her acar recipe caught my eyes. It seem simple enough and I have all the ingredients in my pantry, so why not give it a try.

I made it few days ago and it was also my first time attempting acar. It was pretty good and I ate it like a salad for snack. Oh, I sprinkled grounded roasted peanuts and toasted sesame seeds before serving since I have both ready in the freezer.

Here's her recipe. Thanks Pusiva!