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Thursday, 3 July 2008

Seaweed Salad

I work near a branch of Wasabi and every time I get a sushi craving and I give in, this is where I go. There is much selection and I am often racked with indecision, mostly because I want it all. It's hard having a bottomless appetite when your wallet isn't accomodating.

I recently tried their seaweed salad and I was instantly addicted. Bundles of sesame flavoured stringy seaweed, slightly crunchy with a subtle nose-tingling heat from wasabi. It's texture is much like that of jellyfish that you get for dim sum. It's not cheap at £1.95 a box, so I set about finding out how to make it myself.

I found this packet in the Chinese supermarket, which seemed promising. No calories too, apparently...! I'm not sure how you'd incorporate it into pasta, as stated on the pack though.
Upon opening it, much of the seaweed inside was the normal wakame. There were also strands of red and clear seaweeds. It wasn't the stringy bundles as I'd hoped, but it made for a delicious vegetable side anyway.

Seaweed Salad

To serve 1

1 tbsp seaweed, soaked in boiling water for 15 minutes
1 tsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp mirin
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame seeds, lightly toasted
A few drops of sesame oil
A little wasabi (to taste)

Mix all of the above and dress the seaweed. Next time I'll add a little finely chopped spring onion. If anyone knows where I can buy seaweed like this, in London, please let me know!
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7 comments:

  1. Anonymous4 July 2008 at 08:53

    That green seaweed you are looking for is shredded wakame. You can buy ready to eat wakame pickle from chinese supermarket in tiny packet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hollow Legs4 July 2008 at 10:45

    Hi sunflower,

    I think there's several different types of wakame - the one I have is called 'fueru wakame' and that's the flat rectangles, so I wonder if this has a specific name?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4 July 2008 at 11:03

    I think Fueru wakame is the right seaweed for salad. You can get shredded one too like in Japan centre http://www.japancentre.com/?cmd=itm&cid=&id=798
    which is on special offer at the moment. You need to soak then blanch in hot water, the longer you boil the softer it gets.

    The packet you have just used for the salad I can see the transparent ones are agar strips, not sure what the pink brown ones are.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hollow Legs4 July 2008 at 11:37

    Hi Sunflower,

    that is the one I have, and it's good for miso soups but not what I'm looking for. Apparently the salad I'm talking about uses the wakame stem so that it's stringy, the texture a bit like jellyfish, and not wide and flat like the fueru one.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous7 July 2008 at 11:50

    Why did the lobster blush?

    Because the sea-weed.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous3 October 2010 at 14:50

    this is an old post but for anyone else looking for the same type of wakame salad as Lizzie, you want goma wakame. it is available by Azuma Foods. a quick google search will give you places to buy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. seaweed man6 August 2011 at 14:48

    i sell fresh edible seaweed from the isle of bute in scotland www.justseaweed.com
    iain

    ReplyDelete

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