If your guests are looking for something exotic as an appetizer, you can serve an honest-to-goodness Japanese salad in just a few minutes and get raves for it. In this day and age, almost everything is bottled or premixed so all you’ll have to do is blend everything together.
This quick salad is called Kani Salad It’s quite popular in New York and easily ordered at Japanese restaurants in major cities, but wherever you are, you can prepare this yourself with the help of ingredients easily bought from a Japanese ingredients store.
Pick up a pack of imitation crabsticks called “kani,” Kewpie Japanese mayonnaise (Kewpie is the most well-known brand, but there are certainly other brands as well), and a pack of fresh Masago (crunchy orange-colored roe). Masago can be quite expensive, so this ingredient is optional.
You can also get a bottle of Kani Salad dressing (this has a dark coloration like soy sauce and looks like a suspension because the oil is separated on top, with some visible sesame seeds), but although this greatly enhances the Japanese flavor of the appetizer, it is also optional.
At the local grocer’s, get a small head of iceberg lettuce, a cucumber, and a couple of ripe mangoes. In places where ripe mangoes are rare, the closest flavor you can come up with are those of peaches. If you’re using canned peaches, make sure they’re well drained. Alternatively, purchase canned peaches in light syrup, not heavy syrup.
Salad ingredients are generally measured according to taste, so at first, plan a recipe that serves four and make adjustments as you prepare this appetizer for more guests. First, remove the plastic wrapping from each crabstick and shred them into strips. This is easy to do as the sticks are actually several strips just bundled together.
Next, wash the lettuce and slice into one-and-a-half-inch squares. Wash the cucumber and remove the seeds, but leave the peel on. Julienne (cut into thin strips) the cucumber and set aside. Estimate about three crabsticks, a cup of sliced lettuce, and about one-fourth cup of julienned cucumber per serving.
Slice the mangoes into strips or wedges, depending on your preference. Toss the cucumber, crabsticks, and lettuce together in a large bowl. When your guests arrive, you can opt to serve the mangoes in a dish and allow them to serve themselves, salad-bar style.
Shake the Kani salad dressing and pour on salad, using about 1 tablespoon per serving. Be prudent, as this has a strong flavor. Add Japanese mayonnaise and sprinkle sparingly with the brightly-colored Masago.
Your Kani Salad goes well with any other main Japanese fare, such as shrimp or mixed tempura or sushi, which you can prepare well in advance and keep in the ref until your guests arrive.
Individual servings are preferably served in earthenware bowls and with chopsticks. Remember to prepare the ingredients as close as possible to serving time as the vegetables would tend to discolor when placed in the refrigerator for a long time after they’re sliced.