Jellyfish salad

Ingredientsserves 4

Method

1. Instant jellyfish: open the packet, discard the sachet if you are making your own dressing, rinse under the tap and drain. Salted jellyfish: rinse several times, soak thirty minutes or overnight, roll up and cut into shreds.
2. Heat a pot of water to about 70 °C, steaming but not boiling, and scald the jellyfish for ten to twenty seconds; the shreds curl at once and toughen if they stay longer.
3. Plunge into iced water, drain, and squeeze dry in a clean cloth.
4. Salt the cucumber shreds lightly for ten minutes and squeeze.
5. Toss the jellyfish, cucumber and carrot with the garlic and the dressing (soy, black vinegar, sugar, sesame oil and chilli oil) and chill thirty minutes.
6. Scatter the toasted sesame just before serving. Keep it cold throughout and eat it the day it is dressed.

Take care

• Jellyfish is not one of the Australian mandatory-declaration allergens (it is neither crustacean nor mollusc), but the packet dressing usually contains sesame and often soy and wheat, so read it; the home dressing contains sesame (the oil) and soy and wheat (the soy sauce). Salted jellyfish is very salty until rinsed. Keep it cold and eat it the day it is dressed.

The story

Jellyfish is the crunchy cold starter of the Cantonese banquet (on the same plate as the braised meats and eggs) and of the Shanghainese table, and it moved into Hong Kong homes once the salted sheets gave way to instant shredded packets that need only rinsing; the Sky Post calls it a home-made appetiser. Families argue over head versus sheet and how much vinegar, not over whether it belongs at a New Year dinner.

Same technique

Blanched choy sumLettuce in oyster sauceAmaranth in stock with century and salted egg

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.