Celery and Jelly Fish (西芹海蜇)

This simple cold dish is delicious, and often appears as one of the appetizers in a banquet.

Ingredients

1. Celery, 3-4 stalks. 
2. Jelly Fish Heads (海蜇頭), 14oz (see product image- it’s key to get jelly fish heads, in nodules, not the jelly fish, in sheets). Note- bean-curd-slices (干絲) works well as a substitute (need to blanch for 15-20 minutes till soft, or immerse in baking soda water first, then blanch for 2-3 minutes, stay tuned for update on this).

   

   Jelly Fish Heads

Method

1. Immerse jelly fish heads in water until they no longer taste salty (6-8 hours, change water 3-4 times, every 1.5-2 hours). To taste, wipe the surface with your finger, and take a quick lick at the finger.
2. Chop the jelly fish heads into bite-size pieces. 
3. Chop celery into bite-size chunks. Blanch in boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Take out and set aside. Note- Many recipes advocate peeling fiber from the celery stalk.surface, by cutting a stalk halfway in depth on the concave side of the stalk, at the half-length point, then separating the stalk gently while peeling the fiber off from the convex side of the stalk. Papa thinks blanching alone is sufficient (fiber is good for our digestive system after all).
4. Let the boiling water (used for blanching celery chunks) cool for 2-3 minutes (for the water temperature to go down to ~180 degF).
5. Place the jelly fish pieces in a strainer, and let the strainer sit over an empty large ceramic bowl. Now pour the hot (but no longer boiling) water slowly into the strainer (with the water being collected in the ceramic bowl).
6. Leave the jelly fish pieces sit in the hot water for ~10 seconds (but not much longer). Pick up the strainer and set aside the jelly fish pieces. Note- Jelly fish pieces will shrink and harden if left in boiling water, or hot water, for too long.  
7. Place the celery chunks and the jelly fish pieces in a mixing bowl.  Stir, and mix, then season to taste, starting with salt/0.25tsp, light soy sauce/1tsp, sugar/1Tbsp, and rice vinegar/1Tbsp. The outcome from our kitchen is at the top of this post. Note- Use light soy sauce only, in small quantity. Keep in mind that this is a light-colored cold dish.