Thursday, July 12, 2012

Mango and Tuna Sashimi Crunchy Vegetable Salad with Sweet Sesame Dressing

 This is a very refreshing summer salad.  the mango has the same melt-in-the-mouth texture as the tuna, and the flavour is brought out by the dressing.  Although it's only 300 calories, I found it quite filling.

If making this outside of Japan, you need to check that the fish is very fresh i.e. caught the same day.  The large Sainsbury's in my town stocks fish that is caught the same day.

Sesame seeds are high in calcium.  A tablespoon of sesame seeds contains about 10% of the RDA for calcium.  However, because of the hard shell, they need to be broken down to make that calcium accessible to the body.  If you can find crushed sesame, so much the better.


Ingredients (per person)
50g very fresh tuna (outside Japan you need to check it's been caught that day - large Sainsbury's in the UK sometimes (often?) do this)
100g celery (2 sticks)
100g cucumber (this is about 1/4 of a British cucumber)
100g mango (1/2 mango)
strips of nori (dried seaweed)
1 tbsp reduced salt soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin
15g ginger paste
15g horseradish sauce (or wasabi to taste)
1 tbsp (approx 10g) white sesame seeds (or better if you can get the crushed ones with more whole sesame seeds for garnish)

Nutrition Info
Calories: 300
Protein: 17.7g
Carbohydrate: 35g
Fat: 8.3g
Dietary Fibre: 6g

Method 
  • Make the dressing.  Crush the sesame seeds as much as you can in a pestle and mortar.  You probably can't crush them entirely, but that's OK.  Grinding the seeds releases the flavour and also makes the calcium more accessible to the body.
  • In a cup, mix the soy sauce, mirin, ginger paste, horseradish sauce and ground sesame seeds.  Put in the fridge.
  • Now prepare the salad.  Slice the celery sticks.  Quarter the cucumber lengthways and chop into cubes.  Chop the mango into similar sized pieces to the vegetables.  Chop the raw tuna steak into 1cm cubes.  Put everything into a bowl and mix well with the dressing.
  • You want to eat this salad cold, so if everything hasn't come out of the fridge, you should cover the bowl and put it in the fridge for an hour.  This would also be nice for marinading, for people less impatient than me!
  • Spoon onto a plate or bowl, sprinkle with strips of nori, and enjoy!

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