Duck salad a colourful appetiser for CNY family feast

Chinese New Year is a time which casts the spotlight on kinship and feasting.

For a colourful appetiser for your family feast, here is my take on duck salad that is inspired by the Fujian-style, one I ate at Beng Thin Hoon Kee restaurant.

There is no need to fire up the stove for this Chinese salad, which can look pretty impressive with a little care put into its presentation. There's a fair bit of work with the knife to get the rock melon, cucumber and chilli into matchstick-sized strips.

But once you get all that slicing out of the way, putting this salad together is a piece of cake.

During this festive season when there is plenty of cooking, hosting and visiting to do, I have no qualms taking shortcuts. Store-bought roast duck is good enough.

I chose duck breast as it is the easiest part to slice. If you are on good terms with the stall owner, you can try asking if he can debone it for you.

Makan

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For the salad dressing, use good quality plum sauce. Taste it before use so that you can adjust the quantity to suit your preference. Add the salad dressing, shallots and sesame oil just before serving.

INGREDIENTS (DUCK SALAD)

• 350g rock melon, julienned
• 280g cucumber, julienned
• 1 red finger chilli, julienned
• 150g jellyfish
• 150g pomelo sacs
• 300g roast duck breast, sliced
• 1 Mandarin orange (100g), separate into segments
• 1 tbsp roasted sesame seeds
• 10g fried shallots
• 10g Chinese celery, cut into 5cm lengths

INGREDIENTS (DRESSING)

• 3 tbsp plum sauce
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp shallot oil

METHOD

1. Arrange the julienned rock melon, cucumber and chilli to form a circle on the serving dish.

2. Arrange jellyfish to form an inner circle.

3. Place the pomelo sacs in the centre.

4. Place sliced roast duck in a rice bowl and press down lightly. Invert the rice bowl in the centre of the serving dish, on top of the pomelo sacs.

5. Gently remove the bowl, leaving the duck meat on the serving dish.

6. Arrange the Mandarin orange segments around the duck meat.

7. Place the ingredients for the salad dressing in a clean bowl. Mix well.

8. Drizzle the dressing on the salad.

9. Garnish with the sesame seeds, fried shallots and Chinese celery.

10. Serve. Mix well before eating.