Chinchai Cook: Roast Pork Salad

Here’s the thing: I’ve never been a fan of salad. Of course, that was when I thought of salads as those completely unappetising garden salads served with budget mayonnaise. Nowadays though, I’m getting more appreciative of it now my eyes have been opened up to the possibilities – from the gourmet-styled Caesar Salad, to the simple greens dressed in vinagerette.

And increasingly, I’ve been taking to making salads for pot lucks and what not. It’s easy, it’s brings veges to the table, and I like doing it in ways that break the “healthy food” stereotype *evil grin*

If you think salads are far from sinful, check out what I cooked up a few days ago:

Roast Pork Salad

Firstly, get some siu yok (Chinese roast pork). You could buy one from the shops, or if you’re like me and you wanna give a go at making home-made siu yok, I recommend the recipe I found here. It’s easy to follow and the results are quite good. Threw in brown mushroom at the last 10 minutes to roast them a bit and add to the salad.

Next, prepare the salad dressing. I tried a recipe I grabbed from this site, and I absolutely loved it! It’s sweet though, and may not be everyone’s idea of salad dressing. I think I need to adjust it a little, starting with using real vinegar rather than the sushi vinegar I have at home which probably made it sweeter and less sharp. But frankly, I could just serve the dressing over the siu yok and forget about the greens altogether.

But hey, I had promised a salad and so a salad it shall be. For that, I was going to try baby spinach but it just happened there weren’t any in the store I went to, so I ended up using butterheads. But who cares, everyone knew the greens were really just an excuse.

And there you go. Just toss the greens, roast pork and roast mushrooms together with the dressing, and the roast pork salad is ready to go.