Luxurious spicy sour Thai seafood salad

What happened was that the grocery shopping arrived and one thing I always have is frozen seafood in the freezer.

Usually whole (cleaned, gutted) squid, big raw prawns and some scallops. Er, right now, the freezer box is so full of ice I can’t even get at the squid. And yes, I actually have a small under-counter fridge with just a freezer box at the top. I like that it’s under the counter and looks neat in the kitchen and also I don’t like to store (hoard) too much food so it works for me. Unless the freezer box is totally iced closed of course.

The newly arrived bags of frozen prawns and scallops were not going to wait for the freezer to defrost either!

I used some of them for an unexpectedly luxurious lunch for a normal Thursday, making them into a quick stir fry with gorgeous chorizo, a little chilli and a little spring onion and had it with rice.

I then poached all the rest by bringing a pan of water to the boil with a crumbled stock cube and some slices of fresh ginger, added the seafood (defrosted by then) and simmering very very gently for 3-4 minutes. Cool and it’ll keep in the fridge for 2-3 days.

OK, it’s not the prettiest way to use seafood but I definitely didn’t want to waste it.

Friday was therefore another unexpectedly luxurious lunchtime treat of a Thai seafood salad, or yum talay.

To make a deliciously indulgent, summery salad for one, you’ll need:

the juice of one juicy lime

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1/2-1 teaspoon sugar (granulated or castor)

1/4-1/2 teaspoon dried chilli flakes

cooked seafood - whatever and how much you choose. I have prawns and scallops

lettuce (I used little gem), cut in half and shredded

a few cherry tomatoes, quartered

a shallot, peeled and sliced into nice long slices, not diced

fresh herbs (optional) - whatever you have and like. I had coriander, mint and basil

Mix all of the dressing ingredients together (lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, chilli flakes) in a large bowl and stir to dissolve the sugar. Taste and add more of any of the ingredients to make it perfect for you.

Add the cooked seafood straight into the dressing and then the lettuce, tomatoes and shallots.

Mix it all together - you can use a spoon if you prefer but I like to use my (clean) hands to slightly massage it all in.

Add the fresh herbs, if using, and mix again.

Pile onto a plate and eat.

Perhaps have a glass of rosé with it if it’s sunny and you fancy it!

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Thai Isaan-style sausage salad - sai krok isan

You know when you just know what exactly it is you want to eat?

And that just makes everything so much easier.

I hate making wrong food choices. So usually when I know exactly what I want, well that’s good.

Except perhaps when what you really (really) want is sai krop isan … a beautiful sour fermented sausage street food from north eastern Thailand …

BUT … ! Hold on!

I made this. And it was so good. All from store-cupboard stuff and some pork sausages.

A real cheat’s version, yep.

But really good in its own right too.

Note that the ingredients need cooked rice, so maybe make some extra one evening so you can have this for lunch the next day, or cook the rice first anyway so that you have it ready to make the new sausages.

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For a light lunch for two you’ll need …

2 or 3 pork sausages, plain or Cumberland

one garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

a good pinch of salt

a teaspoon of ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon white pepper if you have it

a tablespoon or two of cooked rice

plain flour

cooking oil

lettuce, cucumber, spring onions, sliced chillies and lime juice to serve

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Get all the ingredients together and squeeze the sausagemeat from the sausages, just cutting the casings (and discarding), squeezing it out and then mixing with the garlic, soy sauce, salt, ground coriander and white pepper.

Mix it all up and add the cooked rice, and mix again and make into a ball.

Dredge with plain flour so you’re ready to start making the brand new sausages.

Pull off pieces of the mixture and roll in your hands to make new little sausages.

Put a non-stick pan over a medium heat, add cooking oil and when hot add the sausages.

Cook for around eight minutes in total, turning every two minutes or so.

When brown and a little bit crispy they are perfect and ready.

(Try not to eat them all straight from the pan even though I know how tempting it is).

Eat wrapped in lettuce leaves, with perhaps also some cucumber, spring onions, some sliced chillies and a good squeeze of lime.

Really easy, perfect light lunch or dinner.

I hope you like them.

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Perfect poached chicken

I love poached chicken and it unfairly gets a bad rap.

Nothing too serious, y’know, just basically that it’s tough, boring and tasteless!

Well I, for one, love it and here’s why …

1. It keeps the chicken super-moist and delicious but you do have to cook it on a whispering murmur of a simmer for maybe 20-25 mins (not boil the crap out of it for ten mins). .

2. If you find it tasteless then try adding some flavour! A few slices of onion, a squashed garlic clove, lemon or lime, stock cube ... apparently some people add ‘leftover wine’ but I’m afraid I don’t know what that is.

3. It keeps you looking youthful! True. It’s a much more anti-ageing way of cooking - basically the more you keep hydrated the better so cooking in liquid is way better than dry grilling or frying. .

4. Yes I’m sure it does have an old-fashioned ‘diet cooking’ feel about it but hey times move on and if it was tastes great AND it’s got no added fat, what’s not to love? .

5. I forgot to mention my favourite way to poach and that’s to do so in a mixture of coconut milk and water. OMG. I add rice to the same pan too and all of a sudden you’ve got the most amazing warm salad with soft coconut rice and chicken and then crunchy veg and a super spicy sour dressing. .

5b. If you only used half a tin of coconut milk for the poaching liquid then you can chuck the rest straight into a bath for a beautiful luxurious bath milk soak.

6. It’s so versatile and you can poach enough to last the next day or so two. I love it in a spicy sour salad, in a stir fry, with noodles or as tonight in a simple salad with a mustard vinaigrette and Parmesan shavings.

7. Your dog will demand some too! And why not? It’s as healthy a snack or addition to their food as it is for us. .

Er, I really didn’t know I had so much to say about poached chicken but it seems I do

With flavours in the pan

Simmering softly

Lovely poached chicken salad

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Greek yogurt coleslaw

I think coleslaw looks nicer when it’s shredded into thin strips and probably just wins on texture too, but I just wanted to make something super-fast, so whizzed it quickly in the food processor instead.

To make enough for two, I used:

1/2 small green cabbage

1/2 red cabbage

2 carrots, peeled and quartered

1/2 white onion

I also finely chopped a green chilli to stir into the vegetables (I don’t think the food processor would have minced it finely enough).

And for the dressing:

Greek yogurt (about 100g - it was what was left in the carton)

The juice of half a lemon

A teaspoon of honey

A teaspoon of Dijon mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

To save time (and washing up) I just mixed it all into the Greek yogurt pot as I was using the last 100ml or so that were in there, so it just made sense instead of using a bowl.

Taste and adjust any seasonings to your liking and then stir into the vegetable mixture.

For a really speedy lunch, have it with some cold leftover roast chicken or other cooked meat.

It would also be great with burgers or veg-burgers.

This is one of those salads that just tastes so much better than it looks!

So it you’re after a quick lunch or a healthy coleslaw recipes, do try this one.

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Courgette leek salad with (possibly) the best dressing ever

This one’s firmly based on a recipe from one of my favourite cookbooks, The French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook by Mireille Guiliano.

I love her writing and her recipes but I do usually change them up just a little bit, as with most recipes, as here.

This is the most beautifully simple dish that would be an utterly elegant side dish but I’m on a focused lose-the-lockfown-weight THING so I had this for lunch.

And I’ll be having it again soon. It was DELICIOUS.

The dressing makes enough for two so I have my second portion (this image) in the fridge ready for tomorrow’s amazing salad lunch idea (that I have already).

Honey, mustard, olive oil, lemony dressing = AMAZING.

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To make it the way I did and to make a glorious, sunshine, light, gorgeous, healthy lunch for one, you’ll need:

FOR THE SALAD

2 leeks, cleaned, any tough outer layers removed, most of the green part cut off (use in soup another time) and the white piece remaining cut into a few smaller pieces

1 courgette, washed, peeled if you prefer, cut horizontally into slices and then these halved again

FOR THE DRESSING

2 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp runny honey

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

FOR THE MAKING IT ALL AMAZING

salt and pepper

fresh parmesan cheese, grated into little slices

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Bring a big pan of salted water to the boil, throw in the leeks and boil on a fairly gentle boil for five minutes.

Add the courgettes, bring it back to the boil and give it another two minutes.

Drain and leave to cool.

Make the dressing while the vegetables cool by mixing all the dressing ingredients together in a bowl (to be honest, I started eating it straight from the bowl with a spoon). Obviously taste and adjust the quantities so it’s exactly right for you.

When the vegetables are cool, tip into a bowl and season with salt and pepper to your liking.

Toss and add some of the dressing and toss again.

Taste again!

Crumble or peel or grate on some parmesan cheese.

When it’s perfect, just pile it all up and dig in …. this is SO SO GOOD.

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Simplest spicy-sour steak salad

When you want healthy and light and fast … but also incredibly luxurious and special, this quick steak and salad is going to be perfect.

To make it for one, one gorgeous one who totally deserves a luxe delicious lunch, you’ll need:

1 steak of your choice - my favourite is rump

1 small dried red chilli, crumbled or 1/4-1/2 teaspoon dried chilli flakes (you could use fresh chilli if you prefer)

1 small clove of garlic, peeled, crushed and finely diced

The juice of one juicy lime

A good slosh (maybe 1.5 teaspoons) fish sauce

1 teaspoon caster sugar (granulated will work too though)

A tablespoon of water

Dressing of lime, chilli, garlic, fish sauce, sugar and water.

A few cherry tomatoes, halved

A few spring onions, cleaned and sliced on the diagonal so you get nice long pieces

Take your steak from the fridge about half an hour before you’re going to cook it and toss it in a little light soy sauce and a little cooking oil. Massage it all in on both sides and leave until you’re ready to cook.

Mix all the dressing ingredients together and taste. Adjust to see if you need any more of anything to make it perfect for you.

Add the tomatoes and spring onions to the dressing to kind of marinade and soak in all the lovely flavours while you cook your steak.

Cook the steak on a griddle or in a non-stick frying pan to your liking and then leave to rest on a chopping board for a minute of two.

Slice the steak, arrange on a plate and tip over the dressing and salad.

And that’s literally all there is to it!

You could add more salad ingredients if you wanted of course, or fresh herbs (parsley or coriander would be good) or even have this with rice to make it more substantial.

Easy, fast and feels luxurious as well - one of my favourite special lunches just for me.

I hope you love it too.

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Thai grapefruit salad

I love spicy full-of-flavour salads eaten wrapped in lettuce leaves, from my favourite laarb to a a recent recipe for Thai coconut peanut prawn lettuce wraps.

And this recipe has that same coconut and peanut combination but is really fresh and light and tangy …. it’s a beautiful summery dish.

I saw it on my instagram friend Gena’s feed back in June, made it pretty much instantly but then totally forgot to post it!

So I hope you see this and have a chance to make it before the end of the summer.

I think next time I’ll make it I’ll use little gem lettuce ‘cups’ with the grapefruit salad already spooned in, but for this one I used bigger lettuce leaves to tear off and wrap around the salad.

I chose this pink grapefruit as I like the sweetness of pink grapefruit and of course for how pretty it is! Plus red and pink grapefruit contain more antioxidents than yellow.

This is a great anti-aging dish as everything is fresh and nothing cooked, so you get all the hydrating benefits possible.

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To make a lovely starter for perhaps four, or a light lunch for two, you’ll need:

1 large grapefruit, torn into small chunks

2-3 dessert spoons of dessiccated coconut

2 -3 dessert spoons of peanuts (I used salted ones as that was what was in the shop), crushed or chopped very small

1 small red onion, or half a larger one, sliced very finely

1 handful of fresh mint leaves, finely chopped

1 handful of fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped

1/2 tablespoon demerara sugar

1 tablespoon fish sauce (or a light soy sauce to make this vegetarian)

the juice of 1/2 - 1 (depending on how juicy it is and how you like it!)

2 red bird eye chillies

lettuce leaves, to serve

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I like to toast the coconut and peanuts, but you can add them just as they are too - that’s how it was in the original recipe.

To toast, put a non-stick pan over a medium heat, add the coconut and chopped peanuts and toast until a light brown. Stir constantly and watch it closely - it’ll be the one second you look away that it suddenly burns!

Remove from the heat and set aside.

Make the dressing by pounding the chillies in the mortar with the pestle into small pieces, almost into a paste, then add the sugar, fish sauce and lime juice.

Mix together and taste to see if you need more sugar, fish sauce or lime juice so it’s perfect for you - and bear in mind the sweetness or tartness of your grapefruit too.

Tip the dressing into a larger bowl and add all the other ingredients, adding any juice that’s come out of the grapefruit too, and mix to combine.

Serve with the lettuce to make little bite-sized wraps of salad.

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Thai coconut peanut prawn lettuce wraps

Perfect to hand round with drinks, or as a light lunch or even as a starter, these little prawn lettuce wraps are really simple but delicious.

I like cooking my prawns to have them slightly warm in the wrap, but you can always buy ready cooked of course if you prefer.

Quantities are kind of up to you and a bit play-it-by-ear, but to make one plate of these I used:

1 little gem lettuce, stalk removed and a couple of outer leaves removed too that didn’t look very good

2-3 dessert spoons of dessiccated coconut

2 -3 dessert spoons of peanuts (I used salted ones as that was what was in the shop), chopped into small pieces

1 small clove of garlic, peeled and finely minced

a small-ish piece of ginger, enough to peel and grate a teaspoon or so

1/2 teaspoon (more or less of course to your own taste) of dried chilli flakes

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1 spring onion, chopped finely

chopped fresh coriander leaves

some raw prawns, defrotsted if frozen - I think I used 12 or so

2 teaspoons fish sauce

the juice of 1/2-1 lime (and another lime to serve)

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First get all the ingredients out and prepared so it’s all ready to go and put the lettuce leaves onto the serving plate.

Put a non-stick pan over a medium heat, add the coconut and toast until a light brown. Stir constantly and watch it closely - it’ll be the one second you look away that it suddenly burns!

Remove from the heat and set aside.

Into a bowl put about 2/3 of the chopped peanuts and set aside the remainder to add later.

Next into the bowl goes the garlic, ginger, dried chilli flakes, sugar, spring onion and most of the coriander leaves, again keeping some back to add later.

Stir and put the bowl aside for now while you cook the prawns.

Cook the prawns in a non-stick frying pan with just a few sprays of cooking oil and a little splash of water until they turn from grey to pink and are just cooked through (about 2-3 minutes).

Remove the prawns from the pan and allow to cool just a little, then chop into small pieces.

Add the prawns to the bowl, plus the fish sauce and lime juice, and now add most of the toasted coconut too, but leave a little back to garnish.

Stir it all together and check how it tastes - does it need anything else? A little more chilli, lime or fish sauce perhaps?

If not and you’re happy with it, spoon the prawn mixture into the lettuce leaves.

Garnish with the reserved coconut, peanuts and coriander, and add a few lime wedges to the plate in case anyone wants to squeeze more over.

I really hope you try and like this one - it’s going to be my summer party / suppers go-to I think!

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Avocado salad

A couple of weekends ago, when I was last in Cornwall, we visited this beautiful National Trust house and gardens, Trerice. It was one of those ones that’s small enough and so completely gorgeous that always makes me think, ‘I could live here!’.

And within the outbuildings of the house there was not only a very good cafe but also a second-hand bookshop - where I bought this book for 50p.

I mean, South-east Asian salads?! I cannot have enough of them!

And one of the recipes in the book was for this Malaysia avocado salad that I’m making today - with a few little changes, as always, to make it exactly as I’m going to love it.

It’s so so good!

I’ll definitely be making this again (and again).

For a delicious light lunch for one, or as a side for two (I’m going to be having this with steak or grilled chicken soon), you’ll need:

1 nice ripe avocado

half a lime

3 dessert spoons or so of cottage cheese

1 dessert spoon or so of natural yogurt

1 very small - or half - a garlic clove, minced

1 green chilli, diced finely

some chopped chives - of, if you don’t have any but do have coriander leaves, use those (as I did)

1 spring onion, diced finely

some smoked paprika, chopped fresh mint leaves, and chopped lettuce - to serve

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Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone, and dice the flesh. Set aside and squeeze some lime juice into the halves.

Put all the remaining ingredients (except for the garnishes) into a bowl and mix thoroughly and add a little salt and pepper to taste, plus another squeeze of lime juice, and then fold in the avocado cubes.

Put this bowl into the fridge for 10-15 minutes to chill.

When you’re ready to make the final dish, add some of the chopped lettuce into the avocado shells, then fill with the chilled mixture.

Add the rest of the lettuce to your serving dish, and top with the filled avocado shells.

Finish with a little salt and pepper if liked, and a powdering of smoked paprika plus a little chopped fresh mint … and eat!

This is just so fresh and easy and light and delicious, I’ll definitely be having it again soon.

I made it again the other day and instead of scooping it all into the shells, I just put the shredded lettuce on a plate and all the yummy avocado mixture on top!

It might not look that appetising, but it tasted amazing :)

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Fried egg spicy salad

Easiest little lunch, just a couple of eggs and salad made that bit more special with a hot and sour dressing.

For one person, you’ll need:

Some lettuce, shredded - I had Little Gem

A tomato, hard core removed then diced

Some thin slices of red onion

The juice of one juicy lime

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

1-2 birds eye chillies (depending on size of chillies and your preference)

cooking oil

2 eggs

Make the salad by combing the lettuce, tomato and red onion in a bowl.

Mix the dressing ingredients (lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, chilli) together in another little bowl and set aside.

Put a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and add the oil and then crack in two eggs.

Fry the eggs, once to cook the yolks through (I didn’t quite manage this and my yolks are still a little runny - for this dish they’re better cooked through).

Take the eggs out of the pan when cooked and allow to cool.

Cut the eggs into squares or small pieces then add to the salad.

Top with the dressing and toss carefully to combine.

And that’s it!

Super simple,nutritious, easy, tasty little lunch for one …. done!

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Avocado + mango salad

Today, I just wasn’t really feeling making a salad for lunch out of whatever was in the salad drawer but I’m so so so glad I made it and didn’t get something else instead.

Because today’s salad is my new favourite and I’m going to be eating it a lot.

You can of course use whatever salad ingredients you like - plus avocado and mango - but what I had worked perfectly (I think) in a sort of salsa-like kind of way.

I had:

2 spring onions, topped and tailed and sliced

2 radishes, topped and tailed and sliced

4 cherry tomatoes, quartered

2 sticks celery, just the good middle part of the stalk, sliced

red, green and yellow pepper, cut into chunks or sliced

fresh mint leaves and fresh parsley leaves, chopped (coriander would be good too if you like it)

1 small red birds eye chilli, diced (only use as much chilli as you like of course)

half an avocado, cut into slices or chunks

half a mango, cut into slices or chunks

a grind of salt

the juice of one lime (or half a lime if it’s very juicy)

flaked almonds, toasted quickly in a dry pan

I just chopped it all up, then added the salt and lime juice and mixed it all together with clean hands.

Tipped it onto a fresh plate and topped with the toasted almonds.

I’m going to have this for lunch tomorrow too - to use up the other mango and avocado halves!

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Thai-style avocado salad + peanut lime dressing

Well, I had intended to take more photos but …. it was just there. Nothing to take photos OF!

I chopped lots of lovely salad things:

avoacado

mango

red and yellow pepper

tiny tomatoes, halved

spring onions

a carrot

one courgette

a sliced red chilli

fresh coriander leaves

…. and put it all into a shallow dish

And then I made the delicious dressing!

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 small garlic clove, peeled and minced

1 tablespoon demerera sugar

2 tablespoons white vinegar

2 tablespoons crunchy organic peanut butter

4 tablespoons light olive oil

Blend it all together with a grind each of salt and pepper … and taste, taste, taste to see if you think it needs more of anything before you serve it.

And that’s that!

You could always add prawns, chicken or chick peas perhaps if you wanted to make it more substantial, but I thought it was perfect the way it was - and the peanuts add richness.

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Spicy sour salad with coconut chicken + coconut rice

I LOVE LOVE LOVE a spicy sour salad!

I make my ‘sort-of’ som tam several times a week, substituting courgette for green papaya when I can’t get it.

And today I just started playing around (playing around with food and trying out new ideas is one of my very favourite things to do).

NOTE: THIS RECIPE ISN’T ONE WITH LISTED OUT INGREDIENTS ETC AS IT’S JUST WRITTEN AS I DID IT. HOWEVER, I HAVE GONE BACK AND ITALICISED THE INGREDIENTS SO HOPEFULLY THAT’S A LITTLE BIT HELPFUL!

So instead of my usual chicken cooked on the griddle, I tried poaching it in a tin of coconut milk plus a little extra water. Bring the coconut milk and water to a simmer and add sliced chicken and then your rice.

Simmer for nine minutes, then drain and put the sieve back over the saucepan and the lid back on top of the sieve and then let the rice and chicken sit and steam for ten minutes..

So now I have coconut rice and chicken all ready - and that lovely rich soft coconut flavour to add to my favourite spicy sour salad flavours.

(Nope, neither poaching chicken nor simmering coconut milk look that great, but I thought I’d add the photos so that you can see that it doesn’t look appetising at this stage!).

And now for the salad.

Make a quick and easy sugar syrup for the dressing by putting one tablespoon of demerara sugar in a small pan with three or four tablespoons of water and bring to the boil. Stir to ensure all the sugar has dissolved and then removed from the heat to cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

I’ve got a green papaya today but you can always use courgette in its place if you can’t find green papaya (or as I do when I’m too lazy to make a trip to the Thai supermarket).

Peel the papaya/courgette and slice with a julienne peeler.

I’ve also got a few green beans, spring onions and cherry tomatoes, so just slice these too so it’s all ready.

And I’ve a small garlic clove and one red birds eye chilli - but use more or less garlic and chilli to your own taste. Today I want the flavours softer than I sometimes do and for the one chilli to balance the soft coconut rather than overpowering it.

Using a pestle and mortar squash first the chilli and garlic into small pieces - not a total mush, but nice and small as we’re eating it raw.

Then add the green beans, spring onion and tomato and squash it all together again.

Finally add the green papaya plus a handful each of fresh coriander and mint leaves, and … yup … give it all another pounding!

Tip in the cooled sugar syrup, the juice of one juicy lime and a tablespoon of fish sauce.

Stir, mix, combine, scrunch with your (clean!) hands - whatever way you like to mix the flavours - and then taste and see if it needs any more lime or fish sauce.

Add the cooled coconut chicken and coconut rice and mix again.

This is sooooooo delicious!

I love combination of the rich soft coconut rice and chicken, with the sour spicy dressing and the fresh herbs.

In fact, I’m making this for dinner again today ….

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Watermelon chicken salad

Yes, I KNOW it sounds odd, but please bear with me and please TRY this!

This is so simple, and trust me, it WORKS.

So, how did it come about?

Recently, at my parents for the weekend, my step-mum (a very good cook) put together a quick lunch of salamis, cooked meats, breads and .... watermelon. It worked.

And I thought back to a couple of years ago when I made some Thai-influenced little chicken burgers for a party, and I'd added a chunk of watermelon to them in place of a bun, just a little piece of watermelon skewered with a cocktail stick on top of the burger patty.

Oh and I ALSO thought back to days in Thailand, driving through a rural area when suddenly there would be sign up for gai yang, and you could see the chickens roasting on the spit, and we'd slam on the breaks and jump out.

Where the guy would come out his house, take the chicken down, get that big cleaver out and chop it into chunks (bone included) and bag it up to give you.

Where roast chicken is eaten dipped in sweet chilli sauce.

So, combine it all together and you've got watermelon chicken salad.

First time I made it I cooked a roast chicken and had the chicken warm with cold watermelon chunks and a good drizzle of sweet chilli sauce, with rice salad.

Since then I've griddled a piece of chicken to mix with watermelon and Thai sweet chilli sauce.

I've been camping in France and bought cooked chicken from the supermarket to mix with the watermelon and the sweet chilli sauce (I brought this with me as haven't found French supermarkets to have the diverse range of foods I take for granted now in London).

And every time I've made it, it's been good.

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Creamy yogurt lemon mustard dressing

OK, World-Cup-obsessed means simple dinners - tonight shop bought fishcakes (they sound delicious too - cod and chorizo).

I was thinking I’d just squeeze lemon juice over the salad but suddenly decided to experiment to make a creamy yogurt lemon mustard dressing.

This was enough for two:

Half a big juicy lemon
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2tsp salt (I have this lovely lemon thyme Cornish sea salt but normal salt is fine!)
1 tablespoon vinegar - white wine vinegar would be ideal but I only had white malt vinegar so used that
1 tablespoon light olive oil (virgin olive oil would have too strong a flavour for me)
A good grind of black pepper
1 tsp Dijon mustard
4 tablespoons plain yogurt - just natural or Greek would be lovely
1/2 or a tiny clove of garlic, minced

Then just stir or whisk it all together - taste and adjust as needed!

Does it need a little more lemon? Yogurt? Seasoning?

Up to you!

I'll be making this again .... I think it would also be lovely over some simple grilled fish.

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YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE ...

Thai green mango salad / som tam mamuang

I love som tam, the traditional spicy sour Thai salad made with green papaya ... and I often make my version using courgette in place of green papaya.

But this one, made with green mango ...

I'm sorry as I always like to give a substitute and try to avoid specialist ingredients as much as possible, but for this one it's green mango or bust.

I don't make this very often, but when I do I take some care over it - there's something very special to me about a green mango salad.

WhenI lived in Thailand, we had a huge mango tree, with it's branches spread above the decking by the pool.

We had a non-stop supply of sour green mangoes which were dipped into a sauce so fiery, sour, salty .... with fermented fish heads, crabs legs, all sorts of things.

And it was so good!

When the mangoes were ripe, there were fruit flies, we wanted to get rid of the fruit ... and every person who visited left with a carrier bag full of ripe mangoes - imagine, that many mangoes we had to give them away by the bag-load. 

But now, it's a little more special for me to make green mango salad and there's also something I find very elegant about it too.

It's the sweet, sour flavours I think, and that it just works best with prawns or other seafood, so as I said ... I just take that little bit more care than I sometimes do when cooking. 

I don't find it a chore, but actively enjoy each little step, from toasting the almonds (that I prefer in place of traditional peanuts as peanuts aren't nuts but actually legumes, and have more calories than nuts and don't have the good fats either), to blanching the green beans.

I want every single element here to be perfect.

And I also create the salad vegetables together with the dressing - it saves time, washing up, and also - so I believe - blends everything so perfectly that the whole dish comes together as one, all those elements combined into one perfect salad.

Green mango salad for two (perhaps served with rice) or for one greedy one (probably without the added rice) ....

LET'S GO!

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1 tablespoon (3 teaspoons) demerara sugar

4 tablespoons water

flaked almonds

green beans, ends removed 

a few small tomatoes, quartered

2 or 3 spring onions, sliced

1 medium green mango

some raw prawns, defrosted if frozen, and a whole squid tube, defrosted if frozen

1 garlic clove

1-2 birds eye red chillies

1 tablespoon fish sauce

the juice of one juicy lime

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Put the sugar and water into a little pan, bring to the boil slowly and when boiling stir to dissolve the sugar and then remove from heat and cool.

Put a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat, add a handful of flaked almonds and toast for a few seconds, shaking all the time - it'll take maybe 30 seconds - then remove from heat.

Get the vegetables ready: slice the ends from the green beans and cut into inch-long pieces; quarter the cherry tomatoes; slice the spring onions.

Peel the mango and then chop into long thin slices - the easiest way is with a julienne peeler - and put to one side.

Put a saucepan of water on and when boiling add the prawns for a minute or so until almost done, then add the green beans for a minute to blanch, then remove from heat, and cover with cold water to prevent them from cooking further.

If adding squid, cut the tubes, score on both sides, and cook on a hot griddle pan for a minute or so each side. I love how the tubes roll up! 

Using a pestle and mortar, pound the garlic and chilli into a rough paste but not a pulp.

Then what I like to do is make the salad veg and dressing all as one - so add the green beans, tomatoes and spring onion and pound again.

Tip in the sugar syrup, the fish sauce and the lime juice and stir and pound again, to meld it all together.

And then it's just all about putting it together! Add the salad veg/dressing to the green mango and toss with (clean) hands.

Pour it all into your serving bowl or plate and place the prawns and squid on top, and then lastly the toasted almonds.

Elegant, delicious, delicate at the same time somehow as having those huge hot and sour flavours ... this is a special one.

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Thai-style salade nicoise

I had eggs and I had tuna and I had green beans.

So it was looking like a salade nicoise ... but I was STILL hankering after my favourite salad dressing of the moment, which goes with EVERYTHING!

I've had it with roast beef, with sliced steak, with chicken.

Why not with tuna and egg?

Here's how to make my Thai-style version of a (kind of) salade nicoise (give or take the lettuce, olives, potatoes, French dressing ...) for two.

For the dressing, mix together to dissolve the sugar:

1-2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

1/2 small garlic clove, minced very fine

1-2 teaspoons sugar, to your taste

the juice of 1 juicy lime

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

For the salad, whatever you like really!

I had tomatoes, spring onions, courgette (cored and sliced with a julienne peeler), cucumber (peeled and diced), radishes, green pepper.

What makes it really good is also to have some chopped fresh mint and coriander (or parsley if you don't like coriander) leaves.

Oh, and toast some almond flakes in a dry pan ready to add to the finished dish.

For the tuna - I decided I wanted the tuna to be spicy rather than all the salad or the dressing:

1 tin tuna, mixed with a few drops of soy sauce, a squeeze of lime juice and a finely diced red chilli (just use a few slices or half a chilli if you don't want it too hot).

And finally, you'll need:

some fine green beans

2 eggs

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Put a pan of water on to heat, add a pinch of salt and when boiling carefully add the eggs.

After two minutes add the green beans and boil for a further four minutes.

Immediately remove from the heat and rinse and rinse in cold water to prevent the eggs or beans cooking further, then set aside.

Combine all the salad ingredients, add the salad dressing and mix - I just use my (clean!) hands to scrunch it all together.

Put the green beans on top, then the tuna mixture and peel, halve and add the eggs.

Top with the toasted almonds and a little freshly ground black pepper.

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New fave salad dressing // rare roast beef Thai-style salad

Yep, I made my salad with rare roast beef because I was in the supermarket and this lovely piece of beef was in the marked-down pile.

I hate food waste.

I also hate not choosing meat that's free-range and/or organic, animals who had a happy life. Sometimes I have this internal tussle about whether it's 'better' to choose that poor little battery hen who's ended up in the reduced pile, it's life worth nothing in life or death .. or whether to stick by the principle that if we don't buy that stuff, well, that's the important thing, to ensure there's ever more limited demand.

It's a hard one. 

Anyway, that was a bit of an aside as on this occasion, I did buy the reduced little beef joint, and cooked it rare, as I like it.

So this is a long-winded way really of saying that this post is actually ALL about the amazing dressing ... and serve the salad with whatever you choose! 

Make a salad out of JUST those things you really love - I used to make salads stuffed with things I didn't - goodness knows why, perhaps it was habit or thinking that was what you 'had' to have.

I’ve got peppers, radish, spring onion, celery, carrot, tomatoes .... plus some sliced red chilli.

Not too much chilli either - just enough to feel it tingle - as the dressing shines and doesn’t want overpowering.

And then add some toasted flaked almonds and fresh coriander and mint leaves, chopped.

This really adds to the beautiful fresh flavours - DO add these! 

And then such a good dressing!  Here we go!

This was enough to dress a salad for two:

 the juice of one juicy lime

1 tablespoon fish sauce

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

a piece of ginger (grated)

1/2 (or one small) garlic clove minced very fine

All just stirred together to dissolve the sugar, poured over the salad and mixed with my (clean!) hands.

Then topped with the sliced rare beef, or whatever you're choosing to have with it.

This is kind of a back-to-front salad, starting with the dressing rather than the meat or salad itself!

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Yum talay (Thai seafood salad)

Sometimes I don't think what I do is really 'cooking'. Not 'proper cooking'!

I don't really weigh things out, it's never very precise, and you HAVE to taste and taste and see what tastes good to you. 

I see it as less 'cooking' and more 'faffing about playing with food'.

It's ALL about having fun and really ENJOYING making something good to eat - that's usually simple and quick too.

This recipe is a perfect example ... lots of playing and very little actual cooking. 

And it tastes really good.

I love seafood and I love hot and sour flavours - and the lemongrass and lime leaf makes this just really delicious - so full of flavour.

Thai seafood salad - let's get started.

I made a big bowl just for me - so adjust the quantities of course depending on how much you're making.

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Here's a list of the ingredients I used, but read through the whole recipe and see where you might adapt or change according to what you've got and what you like.

frozen prawns and squid, defrosted

1 tablespoon demerera sugar plus 3 tablespoons cold water

1-2 birds eye chillies

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1-2 limes

1 carrot, peeled and julienned

a few slices of white onion

2 spring onions, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

1 stick of celery, chopped

1 stalk of lemongrass

1 lime leaf, torn to remove the stalk

extra wedges of lime, to serve

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You can use any fish or seafood you like (or happen to have).  I always like to have prawns and squid in the freezer as it's just so easy then to make something to eat - and generally I have scallops too but not today. Defrost before using - seafood defrosts quickly in a bowl of cold water - then rinse with fresh cold water and pat dry on kitchen paper.

You need to cook the fish first before adding it to the salad - do this any way you like.

The quickest way for my prawns and squid to cook would be to drop them quickly into a pan of boiling water and cook for only about a minute or less ... I did do the prawns like this - they're ready when they've gone from raw grey to completely pink!

But I wanted my squid to have a bit more texture too it and I just like cooking it on the griddle and watching it roll up! (Yep, 'faffing about playing with food').

So I scored my squid tubes, opened them out and cooked them on a very hot griddle and squeezed lime juice over them as they cooked.

Once the fish and seafood is cooked, just leave to one side to add at the end.

The next part of playing with food is to make the dressing - I added one tablespoon of demerera sugar to three tablespoons of water in a little saucepan and brought it slowly to the boil, stirred to dissolve the sugar and removed from the heat to cool. You could stand the saucepan in some cold water in the sink if you want to cool it more quickly.

I pounded up two birds eye chillies (use 1-2 depending on your taste) then added a tablespoon of fish sauce and the juice of a really juicy lime, then the sugar/water mixture.

Stir it all together and taste - see if you need to add anything else. It might need a little more lime juice depending on how juicy your lime was! 

Do make this dressing to YOUR taste. I like it very spicy and very sour so use lots of chilli and lime, but you might prefer a sweeter dressing, so just taste and play and experiment.

Next - the salad.

Use what you like really!

I had carrot, some white onion, a couple of spring onions, a tomato and some celery - but you could use anything you like.

Very finely slice just the bottom third of a lemongrass stalk (having removed the tough outer layers) and also finely slice a lime leaf and add to the salad. 

If you can't get these then do make it anyway, but the lemongrass and lime leaf are SO GOOD do get them if you can! I'm lucky that my local supermarket sells them so hopefully yours does too.

Add the dressing to the salad, mix well, and tip out onto a plate or bowl and add the seafood

Serve with extra lime wedges to squeeze over.

And that's it!

One delicious, authentic, Thai seafood salad - easy and fun to make and very little actual cooking!

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Green beans, onions, tomatoes + feta

This is a really lovely dish from Rachel Roddy writing in the Weekend Guardian recently - an Italian warm vegetable sort of salad/stew with soft flavours of braised runner beans, tomatoes, olive oil, salt - all warm and beautiful on a summer's day served with some good bread.

I couldn't resist trying it immediately (nope, patience has never been a strong point of mine!) so I ended up making it slightly differently with the ingredients I had.

I still loved it and I'll be making it again, both the way I made it, and going back to try the original.

It's pretty much perfect in its simplicity just as it is, although would make a great accompaniment to any grilled / barbecued meats of fish too.

You'll find the original recipe HERE.

And because my local shop didn't have any fresh basil the day that I made it, and because I had fine beans rather than runner beans, I made some tiny changes to the flavours - without the basil it would need something so I also used a few slices of chilli pepper and some ground cumin.

If you have fresh basil, then omit the chilli and the cumin.

Note that you leave the dish to sit for an hour or two after cooking to be served warm, so factor that into your timings!

Or just eat it hot of course.

Or make it the day before you want it and reheat very gently to serve - I imagine the flavours will only get better when left overnight.

Here's how I made a big pot, enough for two.

You'll need: 

1 medium white onion, very finely sliced

salt

1/2-1 small red chilli, very finely diced

a couple of tablespoons olive oil (I used 20 sprays of my spray cooking oil and a splash of water when it needed it) 

equal quantities of green beans or runner beans, and ripe tomatoes - I think I used 200-300g of each (and use the very best tomatoes you can get hold of - ones with lots of flavour)

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

a good chunk of Feta cheese to serve

Get the ingredients together

Top and tail the beans and cut into small pieces

Remove tough cores from the tomatoes and dice

Put the oil in a pan and when warmed, add the finely sliced onion and a small pinch of salt, and the chilli (if using) and cook gently over a low-medium heat until the onion is soft - if you use a spray oil like me, you'll need to add a splash of water or two as it cooks to prevent the onion burning. Cooking onions until soft always takes longer than I think it will - probably around 10 minutes.

Add the beans to the pan, stir well to combine with the onion, then cook - still stirring - for a 3-4 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, another small pinch of salt and 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (if using) then cover the pan and leave for a couple of minutes. Uncover the pan and stir, then cover for another 4-5 minutes (have a look and stir if you like - and if you need a little splash of water add it - although the juice from the tomatoes should be coming out now as it has time to cook with the lid on).

Once the tomatoes are releasing their juice, uncover the pan and cook uncovered on a low heat, simmering gently, for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

The beans will be really tender and the sauce lovely and thick.

If you have fresh basil add a handful of torn basil leaves now for a couple of minutes. 

Taste and see if it needs any seasoning, then remove from heat and allow to sit for an hour or two before serving warm with the piece of feta crumbled over and served with bread, if liked. 

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