2020-05-01: Chinese Three-Sliver-Tofu Salad

My Chinese Three-Sliver Tofu Salad

We had from the previous week some rehydrated and quick boiled kombu (edible kelp) sheet leftovers from making dashi type soups. Originally I thought I would use the kombu to make a mushroom-kombu relish. However this morning I decided to use all I had up as part of a Chinese style Three-Sliver Tofu salad.

First I started with my initial preparation steps: I cut 2 larger carrots into matchsticks (about 250g carrot matchsticks). I cut the kombu sheets, which were already rehydrated and short-term boiled a while ago, into very narrow 1.5 to 2-inch length strips. This is not necessarily straight-forward, because the kombu sheets often develop a quite slippery surface after rehydration. The amount of kombu sheets I used, were about 3 10x10 cm sheets. Finally I cut about 200g of tofu skin sheets into similar length strips. Afterwards I blanched the carrot sticks for about 30 seconds in boiling water, removed them from the water, and after a brief steaming off period, I moved the carrot sticks into a bowl. I did the same procedure, reusing the same hot/boiling water with the tofu strips (I boiled them for about 3 minutes). Then I added 2 tsp of vinegar into the boiling water and added the kelp strip (to kill of any bacteria that might have developed when storing the rehydrated kelp in the fridge). I boiled the kelp strips for about 2 to 3 minutes. Again I removed the kelp strips from the boiling water and moved them, after a short steaming off period in a colander, into a bowl. Afterwards I moved the 3 bowls outside into the garage to let everything cool down.

The prepared ingredients: Tofu strips, kelp strips, carrot matchsticks, 2 garlic, chopped coriander, self-made chili oil, sugar, and dark Chinese vinegar. Only the light soy sauce and the toasted sesame oil are missing in the picture.

I used a large salad bowl to prepare the dressing: 6 tbsp of dark Chinese rice vinegar, 3 tbsp of soy sauce, about 2 tbsp of sugar (this amount is really to taste), 1 tsp salt, and 2 finely minced garlic cloves. I mixed all of that thoroughly with a whisk. Then I added the tofu strips, kelp strips, and carrot matchsticks to the dressing and mixed everything again with 2 salad spoons (chopsticks can be used for the mixing as well). Afterwards I added about 1 tbsp of sediment from the chili oil and about 2 to 3 tbsp of the self-made chili oil to the salad and mixed the oil again with the other ingredients.

Last but not least, I added the chopped coriander (cilantro) and 1 tsp of toasted sesame oil and voila, I had a nice and healthy Chinese Three-Sliver Tofu Salad for lunch with leftovers for supper (see the first picture for the look of the finished salad).