Ogo Limu Salad (Hawaiian Seaweed Salad)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Fine-mesh colander for rinsing limu
• •3-quart saucepan for quick blanching
• •Ice bath bowl
• •Wooden ʻumeke or wide shallow serving bowl

Instructions

1. 1

   Clean the limu

   Put the ogo in a wide bowl of cold water and lift it with your fingers, so the sand and grit stay behind instead of pouring back over the limu. Pick out tiny shells, tough stems, tired brown bits, and anything that doesn't belong. It should smell clean like the reef at low tide, salty and green, never sour.

   If you bought salted ogo, soak it in cold water for 10 to 15 minutes, changing the water once. Taste a strand before you season the salad, because salted limu carries plenty already.
2. 2

   Blanch it crisp

   Bring a 3-quart saucepan of water to a hard boil and salt it. Drop in the ogo for 10 to 15 seconds, just until the color brightens and the strands relax but still feel springy. Scoop it straight into ice water, drain well, squeeze only lightly, and cut the long strands into 2-inch lengths. No punish it. You want snap, not limpness.

   Some families serve trusted fresh ogo without blanching. For potluck food, I blanch it quick. It keeps the bite clean and the bowl steady on a long table.
3. 3

   Quiet the onion

   Set the sliced sweet onion in cold water for 10 minutes, then drain it well. That little soak takes the sharp edge off and lets the onion sit with the limu instead of shouting over it. Cut the tomato and green onion while you wait.

4. 4

   Mix the dressing

   Whisk the shoyu, rice vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, chili pepper water, and ginger if you're using it until the sugar dissolves. This is contemporary Hawaiʻi talking, plantation pantry sitting beside reef knowledge. Taste it now. It should be salty first, bright second, sesame-rich at the end.

5. 5

   Fold and rest

   In a wide bowl, fold together the blanched ogo, drained onion, tomato, green onion, dressing, and toasted sesame seeds. Use your hands if you like, gentle, lifting from the bottom so the tomato doesn't collapse. Let it rest 20 to 30 minutes in the refrigerator. The ogo should turn glossy and springy, the tomato should give a little juice, and the dressing should cling instead of flooding the bowl.

6. 6

   Taste and share

   Taste before serving. Add a pinch of paʻakai only if it needs it, or a splash more vinegar if the bowl feels sleepy. Serve cool in a wooden ʻumeke, a bowl, with poi and fish if you have them, rice if that's what get. If it sits at a potluck, keep it chilled and give it a clean serving spoon. The reef gave this food, so we treat it clean.

Chef Tips

• •Buy ogo from a fish market, aquaculture farm, or gatherer who can tell you where it came from. If you don't know the water is clean and the harvest is legal, don't eat it raw or blanched. The reef is generous, but only if we keep our kuleana, our responsibility.
• •The limu is deep food. The sesame dressing is modern Hawaiʻi. Both can sit in the same bowl without fighting, because that is how the islands actually eat now.
• •Tomatoes water out if they sit all day. For the cleanest potluck bowl, marinate the ogo and onion first, then fold in the tomato and sesame closer to serving.
• •No Maui onion where you live? Use any sweet onion, or slice a yellow onion thin and soak it longer. Eat what you have, just don't let the onion bully the limu.

Advance Preparation

• •Mix the dressing up to 2 days ahead and keep it refrigerated. Shake or whisk it before using, because the sesame oil rises.
• •Rinse, pick over, and blanch the ogo the morning of serving. Keep it drained, covered, and cold until you dress it.
• •For make-ahead potluck service, dress the ogo and onion up to 4 hours ahead. Add tomato, green onion, and sesame during the last 30 minutes so the salad stays crisp.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 65g)