These puffs can serve as the first course or simply a light lunch, and they also reveal my attitude towards eating good - high in nutritional value while low in quantity of food intake.
For the filling, I am inspired by this spicy sushi (minced raw fish in mayo) that I always ate when I lived in Asia. However, no matter how much I love it, preparing and shaping the rice sound like a daunting task to me, so I replaced it with tofu puffs. If you live in western countries, I believe that your Asian grocery stores should carry them.
Sushi (the rice) usually includes vinegar, which is able to cut any oily taste existing in fatty fish. Therefore, I created pomegranate agar-agar to reproduce the same effect. Perhaps I shall pick up some tips from Ann Kleinberg on storing fresh pomegranate so that I will have the arils all year around, so use some for this dish instead.
Recipe... not really a recipe since I eyeballed the amount:
Fresh sushi-grade salmon: finely diced, mixed with small amount of mayo and paprika
Pomegranate agar-agar: I prefer agar agar (a vegetarian alternative) to gelatin as the former seems crunchier and firm, but feel free to use gelatine or even fresh pomegranate arils. I cooked the agar agar with pure pomegranate juice, then chill to set, finely diced the agar agar.
Tofu puffs - bring a big pot of water to boil, put the puffs in but turn the heat off, just for 30 seconds to rinse off the grease on the surface. Drain immediately. Cut each to two halves. Hollow them out.
To assemble - spoon the salmon mixture into the tofu shell, dotted with pomegranate agar agar, garnish with onion sprouts. Lightly cover with plastic wrap and keep in fridge if you are not going to serve right away. Should consume in the same day.
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25 comments:
Happy women's day Gattina. Send the yellow food to Zorra, still got time. I sent my bread too, see FH!:)
I'm not sure I could bring myself to eat anything as beautiful as that -- your photos are breathtaking, as always!
Hi Gattina,
It's a beautiful dish! Just gorgeous like all your photos. And it does sound delicious. I would love to eat that.
However, since you're posting this on March 7, it should be going to Anna at Morsels and Musings. Kel is host for the week March 10-16. I hope you don't mind switching it. I do want to stick to the posted calendar to be fair to the host each week. Thanks!
Gattina, so many things in this post. Let me ask 'em one by one.
Did you make tofu puffs at home or is it store-bought?
In the first pic, is it a single large platter or are you playing trick with our eyes? :)
Onion sprouts are so photogenic. Thanks for the tip. Its worth re-mentioning.
Fruit based jelly is a great idea too. So many thanks for this enlightening post :)
You're so creative, I love the dishes you come up with!
These are so eye-candy, just like every single photo on your blog! You have a way of combining colours that is so invigorating.
Asha, oh thanks for reminding me! However, WHB has the rule that our WHB posts are exclusive for WHB only. Maybe next year :(
Lydia, oh thanks for your compliment! When I was taking the photo I wasn't in the good mood... bad moment to do anything... so I only managed to snap a few, barely had nothing to choose from, but glad that the result is still okay.
Kalyn, thanks for the sweet words, and thanks for pointing out my mistake, so I just edited the post and sent the submission to Anna.
Suganya, oh you sweetie! Let me see one by one:
- the puffs are store-bought, we Chinese usualy don't make them at home. BTW, the puffs are extremely porous inside, as light as marshallow.
- the plate in the first pic is the same one in the second pic
- onion sprouts very delicious. Raw tastes much better than cooked. Hope you find it at your area.
- oh you are welcome! And I always like agar agar, both in sweet or savory dishs.
Brilynn, thank you!
Lore, really thanks for the sweet words! I have a lot of defeated moment, but glad that last minutes the pieces could come together :)
some of my favourite things (sashimi, pomegranate, onion sprouts) with my favourite kind of tofu! how did you know? :)
That's too pretty to eat! I prefer agar agar over gelatin as well. It's much more fun to eat cause it's sort of crunchy!
what an interesting combination? i do prefer agar-agar than gelatin because of the texture. love your photo!
yummyyyyyy
happy 8 march
Hi Gattina,
This is such a beautiful dish. First time to hear of pomegranate agar-agar. Im a first time visitor to ur blog and all the pictures and recipes look wonderful. May I ask what u use to take ur photos? What camera and lens? I wish i could be this creative when it comes to making recipes. I love that u have many Asian Influences too.
You always amaze me. That is truly beautiful.
Excellent! A refined recipe that looks like an artistic creation! Wonderful!
Cheers,
Rosa
Wooow. So elegant. Fantastic
Woow Gattina the pomegranate agar agar looks sooooo attractive. I loved ur theory.. less quantity and quality..
Your food and pics are works of art.
This is so fancy! I love it!
your creativity and gorgeous photos are sublime!! You inspire me to learn more about photography...and to break more boundaries when it comes to being innovative with food pairing and presentation!
I am all over the spicy tuna at every Japanese restaurant I go to! :) Love it too! This is such a elegant rendition...lovely as always!
Where the heck have I been, you would be a TopChef winner with food like this. The pomegranate "sashimi" mixed with the salmon is so brilliant! and pretty too.
That sounds wonderful--I would love to try this one for a brunch. It sounds like a light but satisfying dish. And a showstopper!
I made dinner today and everything turned out disasterously!!!! so I am looking at your blog for inspiration...hope you are well Gattina!!!
They look so beautiful! I don't know tofu puffs or agar-agar... but I want to eat these!
I wonder if I could sprout some onions - and maybe some radishes. I love sprouts and they're never for sale here.
I can only imagine how marvelous all those flavors and textures taste (and feel) in the mouth. The pictures are so beautiful.
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