CRISPY ‘SEAWEED’
2 min readPreparation & cooking time: 15–20 mins & drying time.
You will be pleasantly surprised to learn that this exotic and very popular dish available in Chinese restaurants is in fact nothing more than fried green cabbage! It is not too difficult to prepare and cook at home; the secret is to make sure the leaves are completely dry before frying.
Some restaurants garnish this dish with dried scallops, which are prohibitively expensive and extremely tedious to prepare, so many others opt for the easy substitute of ready-made ground fried fish or roasted almonds.
450g (1lb) spring greens
oil for deep-frying
1 teaspoon caster sugar
½ teaspoon salt
pinch of MSG (optional)
To garnish (optional):
1 tablespoon ground fried fish (see Glossary), or 1 tablespoon roasted, flaked and crushed almonds
Separate the dark outer leaves (reserve the pale-coloured hearts for other use) and clean well with a damp cloth – do not wash in water as they will take too long to dry. Cut off the hard stalks in the centre of each leaf .
Pile the leaves on top of each other and roll into a tight ‘sausage’, then thinly cut into fine shreds . Spread the shreds out to dry for at least 30 minutes or 2–3 hours.
Cutting and shredding the spring greens.
To cook: heat the oil in a wok or deep-fryer until hot (180°C/350°F). Deep-fry the shredded greens in batches; stir to separate them. Remove as soon as they are crispy, but before the colour starts to change from dark green to light brown, with a strainer or sieve. Drain and sprinkle the seasonings evenly all over. Serve with or without garnish.
The ‘seaweed’ will stay crisp for several hours; or it can be recrispened for a few minutes in a medium-hot oven if gone limp.
NB The colour of the oil turns green after cooking the ‘seaweed’, so it should not be re-used for cooking anything other than green vegetables (such as spinach, broccoli or green cabbage, etc).
