Young Jackfruit and Lotus Root Salad with Chicken Feet and Vietnamese Ham

Posted by Quyen | Labels: Salad, vegetable and fruit

Chicken feet don't seem all that appetizing for some people but I am fond of its texture, especially when you cook it with the right ingredients. The chicken feet's skin is delicate and soft. It's tendons appears gelatinous and yet chewy when steamed. It can be crunchy and chewy when boiled.

My oldest daughter who is 3 years old loves to chew on this delicatessen. We wouldn't leave the Dim Sum place without having at least one order of steamed Chicken Feet in a sauce flavoured with a sweet fermented black bean sauce. It has an exquisite taste.

A long while ago, I made chicken feet a few times and it actually didn't turn out bad. It wasn't as tasty as the chicken feet at the Chinese Dim Sum, but pretty close. The process of making it is somewhat complicated and time-consuming. As always, to satify my curiosity, I would make it at least once just to experiment. The Chinese Chicken Feet definitely takes love and patience in cooking. Chicken feet lovers will have to wait for this recipe on the next post, but for now I will introduce an authentic Vietnamese Salad with chicken feet: Young Jackfruit (Mít Non) and Lotus Root (Ngó Sen) salad with Chicken Feet (Chân Gà) and Vietnamese Ham (Chả Lụa). It will make a great appetizer as it is served with roasted sesame rice crackers.

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RECIPE: Young Jackfruit and Lotus Root Salad

Ingredients

1 pack Boneless Chicken Feet or raw chicken feet
1 celery stalk, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 onion, cut in half

2/3 - 1 bag Laab Namtok Seasoning Mix
1 tablespoon Sugar
1/3 tablespoon Fish Sauce

2 cans Young Jackfruit (mít non)
1 whole Shallot, thinly sliced
2-3 cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon Soy Sauce

1 teaspoon Sugar

2 cans Lotus Root

1 large Onion
Vinegar, for pickled onion and pickled lotus root

1/2 roll Vietnamese Ham (chả lụa)

1 tablespoon White Roasted Sesame Seeds

Cilantro (ngò), finely chopped

1 bunch Mint Leaves (rau hún), finely chopped
1 bunch Vietnamese Coriander (rau răm), finely chopped
Roasted Sesame Crackers (bánh tráng nướng)

Ingredients for Fish Sauce Dip, optional

3-4 cloves of Garlic, for fish sauce dip

2 Chilli Peppers, for fish sauce dip

4 tablespoons Sugar, for fish sauce dip

1/4 Fish Sauce , for fish sauce dip (prefer 3 crabs brand)

1/2 cup Water or Coco Soda, for fish sauce dip

4 tablespoon Lime and Lemon Juice, for fish sauce dip

Young Jackfruit - wash with salt. Slice jackfruit into stripes. Squeeze it out to drain the water. In a hot oil pan, sautee garlic and shallot until golden brown. Add jackfruit, soy sauce and sugar. Stir it for a few minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool down.

Lotus root - slice into thin slices, then wash with salt water. Squeeze out the liquid and soak it in vinegar mixtured.

Boneless chicken feet - bring water with onion, celery and a teaspoon of salt to boil. Add chicken feet for about a couple minutes. Remove chicken feet and rinse it with cold water. Keep it in the freezer for about 20 minutes or until it's cold enough but not frozen (keeping it in the freezer to make it crunchy). Cut into small pieces.

If using raw chicken feet, remove bones from chicken feets and cook it the same way as the boneless chicken feet except the chicken feet need to be cooked a little bit longer. Then wash it with cold water and keep it in freezer.

Laab Namtok Seasoning Mix - in a sauce pan, mix seasoning mix with 1/3 cup of fish sauce and a tablespoon of sugar. Bring it to boil. Make sure to stir it during the process. If it turned out too thick, just add a little bit of water to thin it out. This seasoning mix is sour and spicy, but if you like it more spicy, just add more of Laab Namtok seasoning in the mixtured seasoning and cook it together. Remove the mixtured seasoning and let it cool down. Then marinate the seasoning mixture with cold chicken feet. Set it aside.

Onion - thinly sliced then soak it in vinegar mixtured

Vietnamese Ham - slice into thin stripes. Set it aside.

Making fish sauce dip - in a mortal, pound garlic, chilli pepper until mashed. Add sugar, fish sauce, lemon and lime. The fish sauce dip needs to be a little thicker than regular fish sauce dip. It should taste sour, salty, sweet and spicy. The ingredients above are just my estimate. I forgot to measure them when I made it. So make sure to adjust the ingredients to your liking.

Putting it together - Mix well young jackfruit, chicken feet, lotus root, vietnamese ham, herbs, roasted sesame seeds. If you like it a little tart, just squeeze some lime juice into it, then mix it well.

Final Step - Now give a big sigh of relief, pick up a piece of roasted rice cracker and scoop up some chicken feet salad; drizzle a little of dipping sauce over it and pop open a cold bottle of beer. Enjoy . . .