Japanese Cabbage Salad

Since I mentioned that I made some Japanese salads (plural) in a recent post, I thought I should follow up with the other salad that I made for our sushi night.

This salad doesn't sound all that glamorous but it is deceptively delicious AND stunningly simple to make. The combination of garlic, ginger and spring onion gives a really fresh hit to the tastebuds and is complimented by the crunchy nutty sweetness of the almonds and sesame seeds. An incredibly healthy (only 15g of oil!) but surprisingly flavoursome salad.

I found the original recipe on All Recipes.com and here is my Thermotalk version:

Ingredients
1 clover of garlic
1cm knob of fresh ginger, peeled
15g sesame oil
30g rice vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
750g cabbage
150g spring onions
150g slivered almonds, toasted
50g sesame seeds, toasted

Method
Place garlic and ginger in TM bowl. Chop for 3 seconds on speed 8. Scrape down sides.
Add sesame oil, rice vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Mix for 30 seconds on speed 2.
Add spring onions. Chop for 3 seconds on speed 7.
Add cabbage. Chop for 5 seconds on speed 4. 
Pour into serving bowl and sprinkle with almonds and sesame seeds. 

Japanese Mayo & Potato Salad

It was sushi night at our place and I decided to make some Japanese salads to compliment it.

Hubby makes the best sushi (as vouched for by many friends and family). Unfortunately this is one thing the Thermomix can't do!

Potatoes were plentiful in my pantry and so potato salad seemed an obvious choice.  And what's Japanese Potato Salad without Japanese Mayonnaise? We are usually an ardent fan of Kewpie Mayonnaise, but in my Thermomix mindset of course I had to have an attempt at making it. Found this recipe at Bella Online but have tweaked it to my taste.

Mayonnaise
Ingredients
1 egg at room temperature (very important!)
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
3/4 tsp salt
1/8 to 1/4 tsp karashi hot mustard (which I didn't have so used hot english!)
1 tsp white sugar
250g canola oil

Method
Insert butterfly. Place all ingredients except oil into TM bowl. Mix for 1 minute on speed 4. With blades rotating on speed 4 and MC in place, slowly drizzle the oil into the lid (should take about 6 minutes to incorporate all the oil).
Store in a sterilised jar. To be the on the safe side most recipes say that it keeps for a couple of days but I have kept it for 2 weeks (just try to use fresh eggs and wash it before cracking).

Potato Salad

This recipe is based on a recipe posted by Just Hungry, however I have again varied the ingredients a bit for taste and texture, and of course used the Thermomix for the whole process! Here it is in Thermotalk:

Ingredients

4 firm medium sized potatoes, scrubbed

2 small carrots, peeled and halved lengthwise

1 small cob of corn, peeled and cut into 3cm length cobs

1 egg

1 stalk of celery

1 small onion or two spring onions

100g Japanese mayonnaise
Salt and pepper

Method

Place 500g of water, 1/2 tsp of salt and a pinch of sugar into TM bowl. Insert simmering basket and place potatoes and egg into it. Place corn and carrots into Varoma receptacle and place Varoma into position. Steam cook for 25 minutes on Varoma temperature speed 1. After 15 minutes remove the corn and egg and set aside. Continue cooking the potatoes and carrots for the remaining time. Once cooked remove simmering basket and throw out water.

Peel potatoes whilst warm (use a kitchen towel if necessary). Peel egg.

Place onions and celery into TM bowl. Chop for 3 seconds on speed 5. 

Roughly break potatoes, carrot and egg into half and add to the TM bowl. 

Cut corn kernels off corn cob and add to the TM bowl (give remaining cob to a teething baby as a tasty and healthy rusk!) 

Add mayonnaise and salt and pepper to TM bowl. Mix for 10 seconds on speed 4 or until chopped to the texture that you prefer. 

Best eaten at room temperature (so if you do refrigerate it, remember to take it out at least 10 minutes before serving).

Cooking order tip: If you are making the mayonnaise and the potato salad on the same day, then do it in the following order to minimise washing up: 

1. Cook potatoes, egg, carrots, and corn. 
2. Rinse out steaming water and dry TM bowl.
3. Make mayonnaise.
4. Remove the mayonnaise to a sterilised jar but don't worry about washing the TM bowl.
5. Complete the remaining steps for making the potato salad.