Mission Chinese Food’s Cabbage Salad
Published July 21, 2014
Sarah Anne Ward for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Randi Brookman Harris.
- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
Advertisement
Ingredients
½ head red cabbage
1 medium-size beet, ideally candy-striped
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon dried hijiki seaweed
1 teaspoon ume vinegar or red-wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sweet white-miso paste
3 tablespoons tahini
1 teaspoon unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon shiro shoyu or light soy sauce
8 anchovy fillets, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons neutral oil, like canola
½ cup kasha
2 tablespoons aonori seaweed, green seaweed or finely shredded nori
3 tablespoons toasted white sesame seeds
1 tablespoon shio kombu or salted kombu, optional
Pinch of salt, or to taste
Preparation
- Step 1
Cut cabbage in half, and remove core. Cut into 1-inch wedges and then into 1-inch pieces. Toss these lightly in a bowl, and set aside.
- Step 2
Under running cold water, scrub beet with a vegetable brush or paper towel. Trim the beet top and beet root to provide a flat base for slicing on a mandoline. Set thickness to ⅛ inch, and slice beets into flat rounds. Season beets with half the lemon juice, and add them to the bowl with cabbage. Set aside.
- Step 3
Make sesame-anchovy dressing. In a small bowl, cover hijiki with warm tap water. Allow to bloom for 15 minutes, then drain well, and season with ume vinegar or red-wine vinegar. Add miso, tahini, rice vinegar, shiro shoyu, the remaining lemon juice and the anchovies, and whisk to combine. Dressing should have a thick, almost mayonnaise-like consistency.
- Step 4
Make the kasha furikake. Pour neutral oil into a sauté pan, and place over medium-high heat until it begins to shimmer. Pour kasha into the hot pan, and stir it quickly with a spoon to coat with oil. Allow kasha to fry in the oil, stirring constantly, until it has darkened by two shades of brown. Drain kasha through a fine strainer, and transfer to a plate covered by paper towel. While it is hot, season with the seaweed, which should adhere to the kasha. When it has cooled, mix kasha in a small bowl with the toasted sesame seeds and, if using, the shio kombu. Salt to taste.
- Step 5
Make the salad. Add 3 tablespoons of the sesame-anchovy dressing to the bowl with the cabbage and the beets, and mix well to combine. Add more dressing if necessary. Transfer the salad to a serving bowl, and sprinkle 4 tablespoons or so of the kasha furikake over the top. (Leftover kasha furikake may be passed at the table, or saved to eat over white rice.)
Private Notes
Comments
Should the kasha be cooked before being fried?
Kasha may be sold as whole buckwheat groats or milled to a finer consistency. What kind of Kasha is called for here?
Hi Juliet! Great question — and you're right, the ingredient list is ambitious! As Danny Bowien is quoted in the accompanying article (link below!), “I’m not a chef who makes you do it exactly the way I say... You’re just looking for flavor and texture. I’m going to improvise. You should, too. You could put potato chips on there.." Skip the seaweeds, and this recipe will still be plenty delicious (and umami-rich!) with the miso, tahini and anchovies. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27
Don't let the ingredient list intimidate you. I made a simplified version of this with what I had on hand: -Didn't have tahini, so I toasted a jar of sesame seeds and threw it in the vitamix with a little bit of water and oil. -Added miso, red wine vinegar, soy sauce, lime (ran out of lemons), & fish sauce (too lazy to open anchovies), and blended it up. -Instead of making the furikake, I just used store-bought. Honestly? Just as good with way less fuss, would make again.
Wanted to love this and made it exactly to the recipe. It was a combination of not loving the tahini flavor and the kasha tasting burnt and gritty despite 5 minutes of sauté time with constant stirring (and no direction on the length of time to cook it) that made this a disappointment.
Made this today with some of the suggestions from the comments. I didn’t have kasha, so I used crispy chickpeas (done in the oven with the same treatment as the kasha), and quickly blanched the cabbage because raw cabbage unless shredded, is usually too much chewing for me. Otherwise follows directions, and it turned out really well! I have about half the dressing left and half a cabbage, so maybe will try shredded and raw next time. Also want to try the peanuts!