Chinese Style Tossed Salad

"Why must be pay such an extorbitant price for cheap vegetables and artificial coloring?. Besides, we can hardly taste the salmon. This is a very high profit margin dish". That was my partner's remark to me after he turned down the waiter's suggestion of Yee Sang. Spoken like a true Penang accountant.

This incident happened some years ago at a Chinese restaurant during the Chinese New Year period. I will have to agree with my better half. I admit that I am a sucker for Yee Sang. I love it. The last time we had this salad at the same restaurant, the salmon was sliced so thinly and the portion size was so miserable. Hardly justified the price we paid. After all the tossing, you could  not taste or see the salmon at all.

I am not adept at handling seafood, let alone sashimi grade salmon. And I thought to myself, why not create my own version of Yee Sang. With my own dressing and instead of fish, I'll use roasted chicken. Of course I can't call it Yee Sang. That would be misleading as it does not contain fish and is miles away from the original thing. So I settled for Chinese Style Tossed Salad. How's that, eh?

The dressing came about months ago (way before this idea came up) when I wanted to recreate a ready made dressing that came with a packet of ready washed salad greens. The taste was lovely but the ingredients listed on the packet did not give me much of a clue as to what it actually contained. It only said something like bean paste and spices. 

Well, I just let the mad scientist in me prevail (My degree in biology came to great effect). I just mixed my ingredients (no test tubes involved) and tasted as I went along. I came quite close but not quite. But it was good enough for me.

For the salad, I used cucumbers, carrots, daikon, crunchy sweet peppers, cherry tomatoes and corriander. For the crunchies, I toasted some taupok (beancurd puffs) and for the protein I used my Chilli Bean Roasted Chicken. The salad was pretty good if I may say so, as the dressing was tangy and full of flavors. The tossing of the salad was done in the kitchen of course because nobody is going to mess up my dining table. I'm such a party pooper hee..hee...

Chinese Style Tossed Salad
Recipe source : Phong Hong (Dressing was inspired by a store bought salad dressing)

Salad ingredients :
- 1 medium Daikon, grated
- 2 Carrots, grated
- 2 medium Cucumbers, cut into thin strips
- 10 Chery tomatoes, sliced
- 4 Sweet crunchy peppers, sliced
- Coriander leaves (cilantro)
- Chicken meat (from two chicken legs), thinly sliced (Can use roasted or steamed chicken)
- 5 Taupok (beancurd puffs), sliced and toasted in the oven at 180C for about 15 minutes until crispy (optional)

Dressing (Good for 2 big servings of salad) :
- 2 big cloves garlic (pounded)
- 1/2 inch ginger (pounded)
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons bean paste (taucheow)
- 1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
- 1 teaspoon chili bean sauce (toban djan)
- 1 teaspoon plum sauce
- 200ml rice vinegar
- 100ml water

Additional ingredients for salad dressing :
- Sesame oil
- Grapeseed oil or any neutral tasting oil

For garnishing :
- toasted sesame seeds.

To make dressing :
- Pound garlic and ginger (or run through garlic press)
- In a saucepan add garlic, ginger, honey, bean paste, dark soya sauce, chili bean sauce, plum sauce, vinegar and water.
- Bring the dressing to a boil and lower heat to simmer for 10-15 minutes until dressing is slightly thick.
- Take it off the heat and cool.

To serve :
- Put salad ingredients into a mixing bowl.
- In another bowl, mix the dressing with 1 teaspoon sesame oil and 2 tablespoons of grapeseed oil
- Pour dressing into salad ingredients and toss to mix well.
- Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

Notes : 
1. The dressing can be made in advance and kept in a bottle in the fridge for 2 weeks.
2. The amount of dressing to use depends on the amount of vegetables you are serving, so it is really up to you to decide how much is enough.  And this will also determine how much sesame and grapeseed oil you will add.
3. If you are using the taupok, toast it just before serving as it will get soft if left out for too long.

I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover.