Seaweed (Kelp) and Bean Sprout Salad

Having a bunch of mom friends who have to continuously come up with fresh ideas for their kids really help to keep the inspiration flowing. One of my friends made this dish one day for a playgroup gathering, and she got the recipe from her friend, so I don't know where this recipe originated, nor is this the original recipe because I just replicated it on taste alone. I'll probably play around more with the seasoning in the future.

The seaweed in this dish is kelp, commonly called konbu or kombu in Japanese, or haidai in Chinese. The ones I got are in the form of fresh, unsalted strands and are slightly crunchy in texture. You can purchase them dried also.

If you buy them fresh, you will need to rinse them many times to get rid of that slimy feel. Cut them into six inch strips. Remove the ends of the mung bean sprouts. Add both the bean sprouts to the marinade for at least an hour minimum, but I always do it overnight because the "spiciness" of the garlic really comes out and it lessens the sea smell of the seaweed. If you have kids who can't eat spice, you might prepare some of the seaweed omitting the garlic.

For 2/3 pounds of seaweed and 1/2 cup bean sprouts, you'll need for the marinade:

1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup sugar

It's a different taste than that of wakame salad. I've tried adding sesame oil to this once but it didn't taste right in this combination. My kids love this salad because they find it different, but it provides another source of calcium for them, which I love.

Persimmon and Marinated Salmon Salad

My parents have freaky persimmons. Perfect for Halloween. The first year their persimmon tree produced fruit, the persimmons were the size of cantelopes. I'm not joking. Thinking back I should have entered them into some strange persimmon contest, but I was too young back then to think entrepreneurially. Now the persimmons that the tree produces are smaller, but they are still strange looking and often have these spokes coming off of the main body. Like these....

...and these...

Well, since my parents unloaded some of these freaky persimmons on me, I had to come up various ways to use them up. Now, I also love the Morey marinated, grilled wild Alaskan salmon from Costco and had some on hand, so I had to try persimmon and salmon salad.

I baked half a pound of salmon 400 degrees 20 minutes skin side down. That was enough for 6 servings of salad. You can use any salad and I prefer lots of spinach, but hubby had purchased whatever was on sale, and whatever was on sale was a romaine lettuce/iceberg lettuce/cabbage mix. I'm almost certain that this would taste better with a spinach salad mix.

Dice the persimmons. One to two medium sized persimmons is enough. And you don't need to use freaky persimmons either.

Assemble your salad and serve with ranch or blue cheese dressing. Using a larger portion of the salmon would be great too if you'd like the salad to be a meal in itself.

Has anyone come across persimmons like these?