Recipe: Yee Sang for Year of the Rat

Every Chinese New Year, we would make an animal yee sang symbolic of the year we are celebrating. 2020 marks the Year of the Rat, and after some sketching and brainstorming with BabySumoKids, this is the design we came up with!

Prosperity Rat Yee Sang

As always, our Yee Sang is very healthy as it's made wholly with fresh fruits and vegetables, with the exception of the crackers (we used Tam Tam for convenience). In lieu of plum sauce, our tangy dressing concoction is made up of extra virgin olive oil, honey and white balsamic vinegar. Less sweet and healthy too!

For the rat face, you will need shredded radish and carrot, as well as blueberries (for eyes), strawberry (for nose) and Japanese nori (for whiskers). We have also added lettuce (for prosperity), pineapple (cos it looks like rat's favourite food, cheese and pineapple also represents "wealth flowing in"), and Japanese cucumber as well as condiments such as crushed peanuts (to represent "floor full of gold" and Tam Tam crackers (to represent more gold). Other ingredients you can add to your sang include Japanese jellyfish and marinated seaweed for extra texture.

Happy tossing and here's to gReAT health, wealth and luck for 2020!

Click here for the step-by-step video

Yee Sang for Year of the Rat
Recipe and design by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Serves 2-4

Ingredients
1/4 lettuce leaves, torn and washed
1/2 carrot, shredded or julienned
1/2 radish, shredded or julienned
1/2 Japanese cucumber, shredded or julienned
2 blueberries
3 small strawberries, sliced into hearts
6-8 pineapple chunks, sliced
Japanese roasted seaweed (nori)
2 packets Tam Tam crackers
1 packet (35g) roasted peanuts, crushed

For the dressing / sauce
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp honey

Raw salmon sashimi or smoked salmon (optional)



1. For the dressing, place olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey in a bowl and mix well.

2. Start by layering the plate with lettuce. For the Year of the Rat, you can use the julienned carrots (for the inner ears) and radish to form a rat face. Use two blueberries for its eyes and a strawberry cut into a triangle/heart for its nose. As seen on the video, do place the strawberry nose at the bottom of the face so that it looks more like a rat.

3. As it is Year of the Rat, I used pineapples to represent cheese that the rat / mouse likes to eat! I also cut some of the strawberries into heart shapes.

4. Just before tossing, pour crushed nuts, crackers and dressing all over the yee sang. Toss, shouting out "good wishes" and enjoy!


Note:
1. To assist with julienning the vegetable, get the julienne peeler from Daiso... so handy and does the job really quickly!

2. For those who do not have white balsamic vinegar, you may substitute with 3-4 calamansi limes. The sauce should taste sweet and sour.

3. For vegetarians, replace Tam Tam crackers with pok chui or other crackers.

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