Burdock root salad 牛蒡のサラダ

Whenever I buy “gobou”, two long roots are in one package and I need to make several dishes before I can finish it. I almost always make “kinpira”  きんぴらごぼう and make several other. Since my wife made “coleslaw” and there was leftover dressing, I made this gobou salad. It is similar to the previous post but I changed the way the gobou was cut and had the slight difference in the dressing.
I made a small serving with a half of a tomato, skinned and peeled (or blanched, shocked and the skin peeled) arranged in a rose-shape with some watercress.

This time, I only added carrots.

Gobou: After scraping off the skin under running water using the back of my knife. I shaved the gobou as though I was sharpening a pencil (I do not know how many younger people today actually sharpen pencils with a knife) in  small elongated pieces shaped like leaves of small bamboo or “sasa”. This way of cutting  is called “sasa-gaki” 笹掻き (here is the visual aid at You Tube) and most often used for gobou. After I cut the gobou in “sasagaki”, I soaked the pieces in water acidulated with rice vinegar for 10 minutes or so I then drained and washed them in running cold water. I cooked the pieces in boiling salted water for 20 minutes (I checked occasionally but this gobou was rather hard and required a long time to cook). I drained and soaked the pieces in cold water for 2-3 minutes and drained.

Carrot: I peeled and prepared the carrot in the same way as the gobou. I cooked the carrot  for 5 minutes and drained.

Dressing: This was leftover from making coleslaw. Essentially, it is half and half mixture of mayonnaise and plain yogurt (water drained or use Greek yogurt), seasoned with sushi vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.

Even after 20 minutes of cooking, this gobou was a bit fibrous. The slightly bitter fresh taste of water cress was a nice contrast.