Of all the foods I love (and there are many) the Thai cuisine definitely ranks at the top. Many of my most memorable meals were had in tiny restaurants in Bangkok, including this amazing barbecue place, and the most wonderful Penang curry (yes I know, penang is technically in Malaysia, but you'll find it on menus in Thai restaurants the world over, including Thailand). I also love Thai salads: the combination of flavours and textures - spicy, crunchy, sweet and soft - just make them some of the most satisfying dishes ever. Because I currently live in the back-arse of nowhere and there's no decent Thai food around, I have to make Thai curries and salads at home when I crave them. For the curry, kaffir lime leaves are absolutely indispensable (seriously the difference between home-made tasting curry, and vaguely authentic tasting curry), and for the salad, this recipe is a must. I tend to make it as a Thai beef salad, and I also usually add cold rice noodles to make it a bit more substantial, but it's equally good just as a plain 'ol vegetarian salad (actually it's also great if you happen to have some of those mini vegetarian spring rolls in the freezer - cook a few, chop them into pieces and serve them on top for more crunch and substance).
If you're using beef, marinate it in some soy and oil first, then fry or bbq until medium, rest for 5 mins, then slice. Toss it in some of the dressing before draping the pieces all over your salad and pouring the rest of the dressing over.
For the salad base and dressing, here's the recipe...
Salad Ingredients:
Lettuce leaves (a mixture - I like baby spinach but you also must have iceberg for a good crunch)
chopped spring onions
chopped cucumber
mung bean sprouts (optional)
cherry tomatoes (optional)
perfectly ripe avocado, chopped
handful of cashew nuts for some crunch (esp. good/impt if this is being served vegetarian)
fresh coriander
fresh chillies (optional)
Dressing Ingredients:
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
about 3 cm lemon grass stalk, sliced
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp water
1/4 tsp salt
fresh chillies, sliced (to taste)
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
1 spring onion, chopped
Put garlic and lemon grass in blender/food processor and chop very finely. Add next 6 ingredients and process again. Add herbs and process until they are roughly chopped. Taste and see if you like the balance of flavours - add more salt if you like.
Arrange salad on individual plates and drizzle dressing over. As I said above, it's great with cold rice noodles, or even with steamed jasmine rice on the side, or just as it is. You will love it, I promise!
And that's what's for dinner here tonight!
Update: Just finished dinner...and it was every bit as wonderful as I'd been imagining it would be. Sigh. Although the 'vegetable spring rolls' I bought at the tiny 'Exotic' (read: Indian) grocery I found on my way home were possibly the weirdest things ever. They were stuffed with curry-flavoured potato - sort of samosa-like I guess. Not necessarily unpleasant in and of themselves, but definitely not complimentary to the strong Thai flavours of the salad.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this recipe! For a while - after our Bangkok workshop, in fact - I was completely addicted to Thai green papaya salad with shredded green papaya (obviously), crunchy green beans, tomato, peanuts and a super hot but kind of sweet and sour Thai dressing even though I generally found it too hot to eat.
ReplyDeleteYum - I remember that salad at the slightly fancy restaurant we went to with Martin and Ann Marie that night. So good, but definitely firey hot!! Odd that I liked it actually because I loathe ripe papaya (one of the only fruits that I truly can't abide!) Have you tried making it at home? In fact, come to that, how easy is it to get green papaya?
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