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Yee sang salad

The salad for the prosperity toss. This salad is only prepared during the celebrations for the Chinese New Year in Singapore and South Eastern Asia. It is not part of the Chinese traditions.

Ingredients

2 T sugar
1 T orange (orange oil)
1 t stock cube (chicken stock cube crushed to powder, or granules)
1⁄2 c radish (shredded and excess juice squeezed out)
1⁄2 c carrot (shredded)
1⁄3 c leek (pickled leek, can be from a jar)
2 T ginger (half pickled red ginger, half pickled ginger, stripped)
5 lf lime (kaffir lime leaves)
2 T peanuts (roasted, coarsely crushed)
1⁄4 grapefruit (or pomelo, sacs separated roughly)
1 T sesame seed (toasted)
1 cruller (sliced and re-fried)
1 c vegetables (choose 2 from the list)
1 c seafood (choose 1 from the list)
1⁄4 t pepper (white pepper)
1⁄4 t cinnamon (ground)
1⁄4 t five spice (powder)
1 pn salt (fine table salt)

Instructions

Combine  plum sauce,  lemon Juice,  fish sauce, sugar, chicken stock granules, sesame and orange oil.

Place white pepper, cinnamon, five spice and salt in a small plate.

Reserve both.

Arrange shredded radish, carrot, pickled leek, pickled ginger, kaffir lime leaves, roasted peanuts, grapefruit, fried sesame seeds and Chinese crullers on a big flat plate.

Sprinkle over some Chinese turnip and fried yam strips. Add the thinly sliced smoked salmon.

Furnish everybody with chopsticks and gather around the salad.

Sprinkle the spices and garnish.

Pour over dressing, and start tossing!!

Total time
50 minutes
Cooking time
20
Preparation time
30
Yield
12 servings

Notes

Roasted cashew nuts are just as good as roasted peanuts. Choose white sesame seeds, black sesame seeds or a mix of both, it would not affect your future prosperity.

If you cannot find it, substitute orange oil with a dash of concentrated lime/orange juice.

Vegetables - choose any two of the following:

  • sliced cabbage
  • unripe green mango, cut into strips
  • Chinese turnip, cut into strips
  • deep fried stripe yam, which can be colored, or fried vegetable, roughly crushed
  • sliced green chili or peppers, cut into fine strips

Seafood - choose one of the following

  • thinly sliced smoked salmon
  • thinly sliced white fish
  • jelly fish
  • cooked prawns

Source

Make the salad tossing a noisy affair by shouting good wishes along the way. Tossing a salad high with chopsticks can be a messy business. Cover the floor with plastic or old papers and have plenty of kitchen paper at hand.

Learn more about yee sang salad and the prosperity toss.

Food in Singapore

Food in Singapore is a cultural carnival. Singaporean cuisine has experiences many influences, mainly Malay, Chinese, Indian, specifically Tamil, Indonesian, and even Western cuisine if we don't forget Singapore has British roots. There are many examples of fusion cooking and also traditions unique to the area.

Glossary

Chinese crullers - Chinese version of breakfast cereal. Made of fried dough. Substitute with corn flakes if you don't have it.

Pomelo - Chinese grapefruit, this is the Malaysian ancestor of grapefruit. If you don't have it, substitute with grapefruit, Ugli, sweet orange or tangelo segments.

elaborate, very challenging
salads, appetizers
Indonesia & South Asia food recipes