Recipe: Cold Shredded Vegetables with Chicken and Ginger-Sesame Sauce

COLD SHREDDED VEGETABLES WITH CHICKEN

FOR THE DRESSING:
1 teaspoon juice of ginger root
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed tomato juice
1 teaspoon dry mustard
2 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon thin soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
1 1/2 teaspoon chinkiang vinegar (rice vinegar)
FOR THE SALAD:
2 dried wood ear black fungus (mushrooms)
3 cups warm water (for soaking mushrooms)
1 egg
1 tablespoon peanut oil
2 large leeks
3 green onions
2 small zucchini
2 small carrots
1 long white radish
2 long seedless type cucumbers
2 medium tomatoes
1/2 cup cooked chicken meat
Boiling water (for rinsing soaked mushrooms)

TO PREPARE THE DRESSING:
Squeeze some peeled ginger root through a garlic press to extract juice. Squeeze juice from tomato. Set aside.

In mixing bowl, mix mustard and sugar; gradually add thin soy sauce, blend to avoid lumping. Add ginger juice, tomato juice, sesame oil and rice vinegar; stir well and set aside.

TO PREPARE THE SALAD:
Wash, then soak, the dried mushrooms in 3 cups warm water for 1 hour.

Beat egg; fry very thin omelet in large skillet greased with peanut oil. Fry both sides gently. Set aside to cool.

Trim leeks, green onions, zucchini, carrots and white radish. Peel carrots and radish. Cut ends off cucumber, but don't peel. Shred vegetables with shredder or cleaver. Set aside.

Wash tomatoes and cut each into eighths. Shred chicken with fingers. Thinly slice cooled omelet into strips. Set aside.

Drain soaked mushrooms. Pour boiling water over mushrooms and drain. Cut out hard center and cut floppy "ears" into thin strips. Set aside.

TO SERVE:
Layer shredded vegetables in center of serving plate, mounding slightly as you build layers of cucumber, carrot, chicken, mushroom strips, zucchini, egg, leeks, radish, green onion and so on, ending with cucumber. Arrange tomato wedge around outer edge. Working from center of vegetable mound, arrange egg strips like spokes of a wheel.

Add dressing and serve.

Makes 6 servings