Category Archives: Salad

Thai Banana Blossom Salad

September 15, 2019 The Captain & the Cook Leave a comment

As we have spent a lot of time in Thailand over the last four years, I find myself cooking many Thai style meals. I usually shop at the local SuperCheap (a Thai supermarket) and use primarily local Asian vegetables and fruits in our meals.

For over a year now I have regularly seen banana flowers in the veggie section and finally decided to make a banana blossom salad. Using the traditional flavours of Thai cuisine this what I came up with…

Ingredients

3 Tablespoons lime juice
2 Tablespoons fish sauce
1 Tablespoon palm sugar*
1 Tablespoon chilli paste or chilli jam
3 Tablespoons coconut cream

1 banana blossom
1 large red chilli
1 large green chilli
1 small carrot (or 1/2 a large carrot)
2 spring onions
bean shoots
4 Tablespoons of Asian fried shallots
2 Tablespoons of crushed peanuts**

Method

Mix the lime sauce, fish sauce, palm sugar and chilli paste in a bowl and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add coconut cream and blend well. Check for the right balance of salty, sweet, sour and spicy. Adjust as needed (fish sauce – salty, sugar – sweet, lime juice – sour and chilli paste – spicy). Set aside.

Cut the chillies lengthwise, remove the seeds and pith. Slice the chillies thinly and add to a large mixing bowl. Grate the carrot and add to the mixing bowl. Finely slice the spring onion and, along with the bean shoots, add to the dish. Set aside.

Fill a large bowl with cold water and squeeze some lemon or lime juice into it. Remove the outer leaves of the banana blossom until all dark leaves have been removed. Keep the best two outer leaves for serving. Cut the blossom lengthwise and remove inner core. Finely slice the blossom and place each slice in the water as you do so, to stop it going black.

Strain the blossom and add to the mixing bowl, add the dressing and two tablespoons of the fried onion and mix well.

To serve

Place two clean banana blossom leaves on plates and heap with the salad. Garnish with a tablespoon each of fried onion and peanuts.

Bon appetite

Notes

*Use soft brown sugar instead of palm sugar

**I didn’t have peanuts so used a seed mix with the salad in the photos. Peanuts would definitely suit the taste better.

Chilli paste, chilli jam and Asian fried shallots found in Asian grocery stores.

This recipe will serve two as a meal or four to six as a side dish.

Add cooked prawns to make it a meal.

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Duck, From the galley, Salad

Spiced Roast Duck Breast with Mango Salad

October 23, 2017 The Captain & the Cook 1 Comment

We love duck, and although it is not terribly good for you (it contains a lot of fat between the skin and the meat), it is not as bad as you think. In fact, without skin and visible fat, duck meat has less fat than roasted skinless chicken breasts. But seriously who can resist the crispy delicious skin of roast duck? Not me! Furthermore, duck meat is surprisingly nutrient dense, provides high-quality protein and contains essential amino acids.

Ingredients
2 duck breast, pat dry and score the duck breast

Spice mix

1cm cinnamon stick
4 petals of star anise
1 tsp peppercorns
1 clove

Salad

1 green mango, shredded or grated
2-3 spring onions, thinly sliced
2 Asian shallots, thinly sliced
1 long red chilli, julienned or diced.
basil, mint, coriander, chopped

Salad Dressing

Salad dressing is the same I use for the Cambodian Green Mango Salad

3 Tbs fish sauce
The juice of two limes
2 Tbs of sweet chilli sauce
1/2 tsp brown sugar

Method

For the duck…

Using a mortar and pestle, crush the spices until well ground (or use five spice powder if you prefer).

Rub the spice mix all over the duck breast.

Heat a frypan until hot (do not add oil). Place duck skin side down and cook for a few minutes, on moderate heat, until fat renders.

Then place the duck into a preheated oven, set at 210c, for 15 minutes. Remove the duck from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

For the salad…

Put all the ingredients for the dressing in a jar and give it a good shake. Refrigerate until needed.

Combine all the salad ingredients and dress the salad at the time of serving.

Serve the sliced duck with the mango salad for a fresh zesty treat.

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Cooking with Local Ingredients, Salad, Thailand

Som Tam

September 18, 2017 The Captain & the Cook 2 Comments

Som Tam is a Thai-style Green Papaya Salad. A popular street food, Som Tam can be found in roadside stalls, markets and many restaurants in Thailand. There are many styles of Som Tam and it is believed to have originated in Laos. Isaan Som Tam is made by crushing small crabs (Som Tam Pu) and is always very very hot! My Som Tam is more like Som Tam Thai which contains peanuts.

My Papaya was green on the outside but getting quite a pinky orange on the inside. It was still firm enough to grate, however, and very yummy.

Cooking Thai food is always about taste. I don’t follow recipes I just do it to taste. What follows is what I did the last time I made Papaya salad but when making the dressing remember to mix it, then taste it and add the salt, sour and sweet flavours to taste as needed.

Ingredients

Dressing
2 Tbs fish sauce
3 Tbs lime juice
2 Tbs palm sugar (or brown sugar)
3 cloves of garlic
2 small hot chillies

Salad
1 small papaya, peeled and grated
1 small carrot, peeled and grated
1 large red chilli, deseeded and finely julienne
6 beans, very finely sliced
1 tomato, chopped
2 spring onions, finely sliced
a handful of bean sprouts
5 Tbs tiny dried shrimp (crushed a little in the mortar)
Roasted peanuts (or crushed nuts*)

Method

For the dressing
In a jar, I mixed the first three ingredients of the dressing. I gave the jar a really good shake and then tasted the dressing. You should be able to taste the salt of the fish sauce, sourness of the lime and sweetness of the sugar. Adjust your dressing until you are happy with it by adding more of what is needed i.e. sour, sweet or salty.

With a mortar and pestle, I crushed the garlic and red chillies and added them to the jar with the dressing. I gave it a really good shake and set it aside in the refrigerator until needed.

For the salad
In a bowl, I mixed the papaya, carrot, chilli, beans, tomato, spring onion and shrimp. Then I added a couple of tablespoons of crushed nuts because I didn’t have any roasted peanuts. The peanuts in this salad are usually chunky.

I added the dressing and mixed the salad well before serving with a sprinkling of crushed nuts.

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chicken, Cooking with Local Ingredients, Laos, Salad

Laos Larb Kai (Chicken Salad)

August 18, 2017 The Captain & the Cook Leave a comment

I have made the point of naming this Laos’ Larb Kai because it came to my attention while we were travelling in Laos, that the delicious meat salad called larb, did, in fact, originate in Laos, not Thailand as many believe.

I have always enjoyed larb at the Thai restaurants in Adelaide, and in Thailand itself. I wasn’t surprised to see it on the menu in Laos, but I assumed, incorrectly, that the idea had derived from Thailand, not the other way around. In fact, it is regarded as the national dish of Laos – unofficially.

This spicy meat salad is served at room temperature with sticky rice or salad vegetables.

Ingredients

3 Tbs of uncooked sticky rice (Optional)
300g of chicken mince
3-4 Asian shallots, finely sliced
2-3 stalks of spring onion, finely sliced (optional)
1 long red chilli, finely chopped
a handful each of mint and coriander chopped
1 Tbs chilli flakes
The juice of one lime
1 Tbs fish sauce
1/2 Tbs brown sugar

How I make my larb…

The first step is to toast the rice. I say optional for the rice because I have made it many times without the rice when I just wanted to make a quick meal. The toasted rice just adds texture.

To toast the rice, I just heated a wok on low heat without oil and added the rice. I continued to stir the rice until it browned and started to smell like popcorn about 10-15mins.

After I let the rice cool a little, I ground it in a mortar with a pestle to a powder and set it aside.

For the salad dressing, I mixed the juice of one lime with the fish sauce and brown sugar and set aside.

For the larb I added a little oil to my wok and fried up the chicken mince, breaking up any big lumps as I went. I removed the chicken from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes. This is when I prepared my vegetables (cucumber and beans) with which I was going to serve with the larb.

Once I was ready to serve I added the shallot, spring onion, and chilli flakes to the chicken in the wok and stirred it well (without heat). I then tossed in the mint, coriander, chopped red chilli and mixed well. I added the dressing next giving the salad a mix, before finally adding three tablespoons of the rice powder.

TIP: add the rice powder gradually as is will depend on the texture you want – I added one tablespoon gave the salad a good toss and did a taste test, before repeat that same process twice more.

Serve with rice or lettuce cups, or as I did with sliced cucumber and green beans.

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Cambodian, Cooking with Local Ingredients, Salad

Green Mango Salad

August 4, 2017 The Captain & the Cook 7 Comments

This was one of our favourite Cambodian street foods. Often made in roadside stalls; we watch these salads being made with tiny whole crushed crabs and sampled many others that incorporated small dried shrimp. I opted to make my mango salad with the dried shrimp* which is readily available in S E Asia where we are currently located.

Ingredients

2 green mangos, peeled and shredded/grated
1/2 a small carrot, grated (I used the carrot to add a bit of colour)
3 Tbs dried shrimp
1 small hot chilli, finely chopped
1 Tbs of finely chopped garlic
3 small Asian shallots, finely sliced
A handful each of holy** basil and mint, finely chopped
2 Tbs crushed peanuts

For the dressing
3 Tbs fish sauce
The juice of two limes
2 Tbs of sweet chilli sauce
1/2 tsp brown sugar

This is how I made the salad….

I put all the ingredients for the dressing in a jar and gave it a good shake and set aside until needed (this made enough salad dressing to save half to use the next day!)

Then in a bowl, I placed the shredded mango, carrot, shrimp, chilli, garlic, shallots, basil, mint and one tablespoon of the peanuts. I gave the salad a really good mix, then added the dressing and mixed it through well.

To serve I place a good portion on individual plates and sprinkle with more peanuts.

Just bloody delicious!

Notes:

*leave out the shrimp if you can’t find any or if you do not like them.

**use normal basil if you can’t get holy basil

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Duck, From the galley, Salad

Crispy Duck Breast Salad

February 29, 2016 The Captain & the Cook 2 Comments

I cooked this crispy duck breast salad for our 12th anniversary dinner. Our anniversary dinner was a day late because we both forgot our anniversary, until the end of the day when I remembered. I, of course, played the “I was just waiting to see if you’d remember” card… but Dwayne saw through it!

Crispy Skin Duck Salad - this one I made for Hellen and Phil for their anniversary. — Crispy Skin Duck Salad – this one I made for Hellen and Phil for their anniversary.

What I had aboard… duck breast, cabbage, carrot, chilli, star anise, cinnamon sticks, chicken stock, ginger, garlic, peppercorns and soy.

What I did…

I made a master stock of :

1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup dark soy
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
2 cm ginger, sliced
2 garlic, crushed
6 peppercorns

I mixed all the stock ingredients together and marinated the two duck breasts for 12 hours. Then I removed the duck and put the marinade into a pot and brought it to the boil. I simmered this stock for 10 minutes before adding the duck breast. I then added the duck and simmered for a further 5 minutes. I removed the duck breasts (reserve the stock) and dried them on a paper towel and sat them before a fan to dry.

In the mean time I made a salad of shredded cabbage, carrots and julienne chillies.

To serve I placed the salad on plates and set them aside. I heated oil in a fry pan and fried the duck for a few minutes on the underside before turning it over and frying the duck breast, skin side down, until crispy. Once crispy, I sat the duck aside for a few minutes while I heated the reserved stock, reducing it. I sliced the duck and placed it on the salad and ladled some of the reduced master stock over the salad.

The salad to go with this duck was made with apple and carrot.

Bon appetite!

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Cooking Our Catch, Crustacean, Salad

Crab Salad

January 14, 2015 The Captain & the Cook 1 Comment

This is another little creation I made while anchored in Darwin Harbour. It was after I got back from my trip to Adelaide. While in Adelaide working my butt off, painting etc, Dwayne was in Darwin, fishing, crabbing and going to the races….. anyhow he caught a couple of crabs and knew better than to eat them while I was away.

I’ve been wanting a crab salad ever since we hit mud crab territory but had, as yet, had little luck. With the heat in Darwin during the ‘build-up’ making cooking unpleasant, I decided to use one of the cooked mud crabs for this simple salad.

I used a food stack mould and layered it with a slice of honeydew and rockmelon, shredded lettuce and then a layer of crab and diced cucumber. I topped the salad with a dressing I made with lime juice, walnut oil, mirin, sweet chilli and sesame oil.

Delicious and very refreshing in the humidity.

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Cephalopod, Cooking Our Catch, Salad

Pickled Octopus Salad with Lime Aioli

September 12, 2014 The Captain & the Cook 1 Comment

Restocking the boat with fresh fruit and veg is always a challenge. What fruit and veg will stay the freshest the longest?… that sort of thing. While at Mooloolaba we went to the supermarket and, surrounded by fresh fruit and vegetables, I went a little crazy. Forgetting I only have a small fridge on the boat I bought lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, fennel bulbs, chillies, zuchinni, capsicum, carrots, swede, and more. Of course when I got it all back to the boat there was no way I was going to fit it all in my fridge. Some of it was able to go into the bilge with the potatoes and onions, (i.e. swede and carrots), but others such as the lettuce and cucumbers needed to go into the fridge.

Anyway that dilemma led to me deciding to have a salad for lunch. My next dilemma was how to serve a salad to Dwayne for lunch without him thinking I am trying to starve him to death! After a search through the fridge I discovered we still had some pickled octopus left. (The occy we caught in Fame Cove).

So this is what I did…

I made a simple salad of lettuce leaves, sliced cucumber, chopped tomato, sliced red onion, thinly sliced fennel bulb and sliced green chilli. I arranged the salad on a platter and topped it with sliced pickled octopus. I wasn’t sure how to dress this salad. What would go with the pickle flavour of the octopus? I decided to do a simple aioli of whole egg mayo and lime juice. I used bottled lime which I always have on hand on the boat. I mixed quite a lot of lime with the mayo to make a thin dressing, which I drizzled over the salad.

It worked really well. We thought the flavours complemented each other. Dwayne loved it and because it had something other than just veggies i.e. the occy, he didn’t accuse me of feeding him diet food!

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