Chrysanthemum leaf butashabu salad
Chrysanthemum leaves are a popular leafy green in East Asian cooking. Known as tong hao (茼蒿) in Mandarin and shungiku (春菊) in Japanese. I mainly grew up eating them in soups and to be honest they weren’t my favourite because they're quite bitter and very herbaceous and fragrant. I love them now, and use them in soups often, but they are also great as a salad. The mild bitterness is similar to rocket and the fragrance is more mild when its raw.
This salad uses my favourite salad dressing that I always keep in the fridge. You can mix the dressing with oil if you like, but lately I’ve preferred to mix the base only and add oil when I am dressing the salad. This allows me to control the amount of dressing I use and I can also change the oils depending on what I am making. Here I’ve used a combination of sesame oil and olive oil for flavour, but you could easily use grapeseed oil or other vegetable oil if you preferred. I also think chilli oil would be nice with this.
The “butashabu” part of the recipe title refers to the shabu-shabu style pork that is quickly poached and tossed through. In the picture this is also served with radish kimchi.
Cooking time
<30min
Ingredients
- 1 bunch chrysanthemum leaves (tong hao in Chinese, shungiku in Japanese), picked
- 1 cucumber, peeled at intervals and thinly sliced on a steep diagonal
- 3 thick spring onions, thinly sliced on a steep diagonal
- 150 g thinly sliced pork belly
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Pickled onion dressing base (makes extra)
- 1 small brown onion, very finely grated
- 4 tbsp soy sauce
- 4 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp sugar
Method
- Start the dressing base at least an hour in advance. The onion needs time to pickle so that it is not too sharp and bitter. Combine all the ingredients in a small jar and shake to combine. It will keep in the fridge for a few months.
- Prepare the leaves by picking any thick stems, washing well, chilling in the fridge and spinning dry. Combine with the cucumber and spring onion.
- Bring a small saucepan of salted water to a boil and add the pork. Boil for just 30 seconds until cooked through, remove from the pot and drain well.
- Add the pork to the greens and toss with the sesame oil and olive oil. Add about 2 tablespoons of the dressing base and toss to combine just before serving.
