Yee Sang

I found out that Yee Sang is only popular in Malaysia and Singapore and parts of South east Asia, used to be eaten on the 7th day of Chinese New Year but now commonly eaten as the popular appetizer course in the standard meal course for any CNY dinner.

The fun of eating Yee Sang is the communal tossing of the salads with chopsticks. The action of tossing is known as Lo Hei which symbolizes increasing prosperity, abundance and vigor. This is why this dish is very popular among businessmen.

The Yee Sang comes in facinating colours. It is serve in a large flat platter with vegetables arranged around a small serving of raw fish in the middle.

Ingredients:

• 100g white raddish, shredded
• 100g of carrot, shredded
• 100g mango, shredded
• 100g of raw papaya, shredded
• 100g purple cabbage, shredded and boiled to soft
• a bunch of coriander leaves
• 5 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded
• 30g pickled ginger. (can get them in bottle in oriental supermarket)
• 50g spring onion, shredded
• 80g pink grapefruits or pamelo
• 50g toasted sesame seeds
• 80g roasted peanuts, pounded
• 10 sheets of wan tan skin, cut into bite pieces ans deep dry until golden brown

Seafood:

• 20-30 thin slices of raw salmon/jelly fish/abalone
• 1tbsp lime juice

Sauce:

• 300g plum sauce
• 1 tbsp apricot
• 3 tbsp lime juice
• 3 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp salt or to taste

10g of five spice powder, put into a red packet

Method:

Combine all the sauce ingredients into a small saucepan. Bring to a low simmering boil. Leave a side to cool completely before use.

Arrange all the shredded vegetables attractively on a big, round serving platter. Put the raw fish in the centre.

To serve, pour the sauce over the yee sang and sprinkle with the five spice powder. Add the sesame seeds and the pounded peanuts.