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| (photo by SRKitchen) |
By popular demand to last week's Self-Raising Kitchen On Tour, I'm including the recipe for the marinated prawn salad with grated coconut.
This salad would be the perfect accompaniment to a summer barbecue or to cleanse the palate while partaking in a rich curry. Due to its fresh, vibrant flavours from the lemongrass, mint, coriander, chilli and lime, and the cooling crunchiness of the coconut, this salad promises to be a hit at your next dinner party.
Now, you do need to use a fresh coconut for this dish. Do not be persuaded to use desiccated coconut as it will not provide you with the same moist freshness that a whole one will give you. What I suggest is you find a sucker...I mean a wonderful helper, who will crack the coconut, pull the flesh out and then very patiently grate it. My beloved did this for me before he disappeared from the kitchen, and from yelling distance, so he didn't get roped in to do any more 'special' jobs.
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| Putting the final touches on the salad. |
Marinated prawn salad with grated coconut
by David Thompson
Ingredients
15 small green prawns, peeled and cleaned
large pinch of palm sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 cup grated coconut
4 red shallots, sliced
2 stalks lemongrass, finely sliced
handful of mixed mint and coriander leaves
3 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded
1 tbsp julienned long red chilli
Marinade
1 garlic clove, peeled
large pinch of salt
2-5 bird's eye chillies
4 tbsp kaffir lime juice, or regular lime juice with a touch of mandarin juice
Method
To make the marinade, pound together the garlic, salt and chillies using a mortar and pestle until you have a fine paste. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the lime juice. Add prawns and knead vigorously for several minutes. Leave for a further few minutes until the prawns have cured.
SRKitchen tip - I didn't have particularly small prawns so I cut up what I had into small pieces. As my host was not a fan of raw seafood, I left the pieces of prawns in the marinade for several hours. Remember the lime juice will actually cook the prawns, so you have no need to introduce any heat to this dish…well at least not from a flame, anyway.
Once you are happy with how 'cooked' the prawns are add palm sugar and fish sauce; the marinade should now taste sour, salty, hot and sweet (the four essential elements to Thai food). Work in the coconut. Add remaining ingredients, reserving a little shredded lime leaf and red chilli to garnish (or mint leaves and chilli).
-recipe end-
Give this salad a go, I promise you will love it as much as I do.
Salivating...
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