Prosperity Toss Salad (Yu Sheng) 🇨🇳

 

I love Yu Sheng as it is such a refreshing salad for a hot summer day like it is now.  Yu Sheng means raw fish, which is the star ingredient of the dish, eaten during Chinese New Year for its auspicious symbolism.  An array of colourful shredded vegetables and condiments are arranged neatly around strips of raw fish on a large platter.  To consume, gather your family and friends around the table with chopsticks ready to pounce.  Once the special sauce is drizzled over the dish, everyone joins in tossing the ingredients into the air with shouts of 'lo hei, lo hei' (meaning 'on the up and up') to bring good fortune and prosperity.  When the salad is well and truly dressed and a mess inadvertently created, you and your guests can then settle down to enjoy this beautiful dish.  It's good fun, a tradition popularised by Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia.  I use Tasmanian smoked salmon instead of raw fish, and ordinary salad vegetables such as carrots, cucumbers, daikon and lettuce leaves instead of the more exotic ones commonly used in this dish for their various symbolic meanings which can be hard to get.  As long as the vegetables are fresh and attractively presented, you've got a good prosperity toss salad.  Don't skip the fried wonton wrappers as they provide the contrast in texture and the crunch.  Serve it immediately after you put it together.   

Serves 10

INGREDIENTS

• 150g / 5oz sashimi grade raw salmon, raw tuna, or smoked salmon, thinly sliced
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and shredded (about 200g / 7oz)
• 1 medium daikon, peeled and shredded (about 200g / 7oz)
• 2 Lebanese cucumbers with skins on, deseeded, cut into 5cm / 2" lengths
• 150g / 5oz butter lettuce leaves, shredded
• ⅓ cup coriander leaves
• 150g / 5oz wonton wrappers, cut into strips
• vegetable oil
• 10 slices pickled ginger, cut into strips
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted
• 1 lime, quartered

Sauce:

• ¼ cup Chinese plum sauce
• ¼ cup Hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 3 tablespoons water
• ½ teaspoon sesame seed oil

METHOD

1. Heat about 2.5cm / 1" depth vegetable oil in a pan or a wok.  Deep fry wonton wrapper strips for 30 seconds to 1 minute until golden brown.  Remove with a metal strainer and drain on a plate lined with paper towels.  (These can be made ahead of time and kept in an airtight container until ready to use.)
2. In a small saucepan, add plum sauce, hoisin sauce, honey and water.  Stir to combine.  Heat gently on low for a few minutes until the sauce thickens slightly.  Stir in the sesame seed oil.  Let it cool and transfer to a small dish.  
3. Arrange shredded carrots, daikons, cucumbers, lettuce leaves, coriander leaves, pickled ginger and crispy wonton wrapper strips into individual sections on a large platter.  Sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
4. Arrange slices of raw fish or smoked salmon in the centre of the platter.
5. When everyone is gathered around the table with their chopsticks ready, squeeze some lime onto the fish and drizzle the sauce over the vegetables.  Let the tossing begin!