China · Home-style
Celery Salad with Tea Tree Mushrooms
Cool blanched celery tossed with chewy tea tree mushrooms in a light sesame oil and oyster sauce dressing. Crisp, fresh and quick to put together.
Tea tree mushrooms come from the mountains of Fujian and Jiangxi and are dried for the winter months, so their chewy, woodsy texture is a marker of the south rather than of the capital cuisines. Mixing them into a cold dressed vegetable stretches a little celery into a proper dish for a banquet table. Scoring the celery stalks before blanching is the small trick that makes them snap rather than squeak.
Ingredients
- celeryExact
- sesame oil5 ml
- oyster sauce7 ml
- light soy sauce3 ml
- salt2 g
Directions
- 1
(Skip this step if using celery shoots.) Boil a kettle of water and set it aside.
- 2
Pick the yellow leaves off the fresh celery or celery shoots, wash them and set aside.
- 3
(Skip this step if using celery shoots.) Separate the leaves into a bowl and score the stalks lengthwise into 2 to 3 mm strips, so they blanch faster and more evenly and stay crisp.
- 4
Cut the celery shoots into 4 cm lengths and set aside.
- 5
(Skip this step if using celery shoots.) Heat a pot, pour in the boiling water and wait until it bubbles.
- 6
(Skip this step if using celery shoots.) Blanch the celery strips for about 20 seconds, add the leaves and 5 seconds later turn off the heat. Lift everything out and refresh it in cold water.
- 7
Sprinkle the blanched celery or shoots with the salt, sesame oil, oyster sauce and light soy sauce and toss until even.
- 8
Add the tea tree mushrooms and toss again until every piece is coated.
Source: HowToCook · WorldBite adaptation · Unlicense source text; bilingual recipe adapted by WorldBite.