Yusheng (鱼生) Raw Fish Salad

It was yusheng for dinner tonight, as we had half a box of prepacked yusheng condiments and sauce left over from Chinese New Year, expiring soon.

For the uninitiated, yusheng, meaning raw fish in Chinese, is a colourful salad that is usually eaten during the Chinese New Year, for good luck and prosperity.

The dish is traditionally made with sliced raw fish and shredded vegetables such as carrot, white and green radish, cucumber and coriander, as well as coloured pickled ginger, deep-fried flour crisps, crushed peanuts, toasted sesame seeds and pomelo. Thin strips of abalone can also be used in place of raw fish.

Our yusheng tonight was vegetarian as we had neither raw fish nor abalone on hand.

Just before eating, we added prepacked plum sauce mix, deep fried flour crisps, toasted sesame seeds and crushed peanuts, as well as home-made deep fried wonton strips for extra crunch.

The act of mixing/tossing the salad with chopsticks before eating is called "lo hei", (Cantonese for "scoop up"). Meaning that you are scooping up good luck, wealth or whatever it is that your heart desires for the new year.

All at the table will toss the salad together, while calling out auspicious New Year greetings and wishes. It is believed that the higher you toss, the better your luck will be in the new year. When we eat this dish at home during the Chinese New Year, we stand on chairs, tossing the salad as high as we can, at the same time wishing everyone abundant happiness, good health and prosperity in the new year!

Nasi Lemak

My family has been enjoying (I hope!) nasi lemak for the past 3 Sundays...cooked by yours truly. It's a dish I can eat all day long!

Visit kuali.com if you need a recipe for cooking the rice but do use basmati rice instead of normal long grain. Basmati rice grains stay separate when cooked and are dry and fluffy, perfectly complementing the lemak taste of coconut milk.

Use only fresh coconut milk as you will never achieve the same effect with tinned milk. Don't stinge on pandan leaves either. The subtle fragrance of steamed pandan leaves intermingling with the rich aroma of coconut milk is heavenly and will have you reaching for second and third helpings.

I like to brighten my nasi with a bit of colour. If I am feeling industrious, I will pound pandan leaves to extract the juice. The pale green colour enhances the appearance of the dish significantly, especially if served on plain white porcelain plates. When I just want a quick meal, I use a little food-grade green colouring instead.

Every foodie knows the chilli paste is as important as the rice in nasi lemak. I have yet to discover the perfect chilli paste recipe so I am using a brand of nasi lemak chilli called AT, made in Malaysia. I bought it from a wet market stall and it is quite close to the real thing. Contains dried chilli, candlenuts, shallots, onions and lemon grass. Unfortunately, it also contains preservatives so I am still on the lookout for a great chilli paste recipe.