prawn salad with an asian twist

Salads are one of my favourite things to eat... I have always loved them and always will :p This prawn salad is a bit of an invention of my own and inspired by Asian dishes, using ginger and chillies. It's also quite filling and can be eaten as a main dish especially on a lovely warm evening or can be prepared as part of a buffet. Keep in mind that it does take a while to make, as there are a lot of ingredients to cut up! Also as this is a completely made up dish I really have no set amounts for the ingredients... just do it by eye and put as much or as little as you like from each ingredient.

Ingredients:

For the prawns and mushrooms:

Pack of prawns (precooked and deshelled)

Pack of mushrooms of your choice

Ginger (finely chopped)

Garlic (finely chopped)

Chillies (finely chopped)

Splash of fish sauce

Splash of soya sauce

For the salad:

Mixed salad leaves of your choice (can include chicory, watercress, lettuce etc….)

Tomatoes

Cucumber

Avocado

Red onion

Bunch of chopped coriander leaves to top up

For the salad dressing:

Freshly squeezed lemon juice 

A pinch of sugar (to compliment the acidity of the lemon)

Olive oil (3 to 5 times the amount of lemon juice)

Chilli flakes (optional, depending on how spicy you want it!)

Preparation:

1.     Heat a bit of oil in a wok and lightly fry the ginger, garlic and chilli over a low heat so as not to burn the ingredients. Add the mushrooms, fish sauce and soya sauce and stir fry until tender. Add prawns and heat through.  Leave to cool slightly before adding to the salad.

2.     Chop and mix all the other salad ingredients in a salad bowl.

3.     Prepare the dressing in a small bowl by mixing all the ingredients and giving them a good stir so that the sugar dissolves as much as possible.

4.     Add the cooled down prawns and mushrooms in the salad making sure that most of the juice from the wok doesn’t “spill” into the salad as the taste from the ginger and the rest of the mixture will be too strong. Add the coriander, salad dressing and a bit of salt if needed. Mix well and serve.

 

 

Sushi fun

Contrary to popular belief this Japanese specialty is actually quite easy to prepare at home. A Japanese friend in my first year at university taught me how to make sushi, and ever since then we hardly go out to eat it. It's much cheaper to make at home and can turn into a fun little social workshop, as friends always want to help out and learn how to prepare those little rolls.

However you need to make sure that the fish is VERY fresh! Whenever we go to the fishmonger to buy the fish in preparation for the sushi I use a little scare tactic, stressing to the person behind the counter that we are making sushi with their fish and it needs to be completely fresh otherwise we could get real bad food poisoning...they sometimes seem to reconsider once they have heard that and advise us as to which fish is fresh enough. One fish to be extra careful with is tuna (salmon is almost always really fresh but this doesn't apply to tuna). If you are not completely sure (the colour should be a deep red, if it's not too fresh it will be slightly pail and have shiny rainbowy bits) you should sear the tuna, so the outside is slightly charred but the inside still a bit raw.
The most common fish to use is salmon and tuna (as you might have guessed by now), as well as king prawns and crabsticks. We also sometimes make a small plain omelette with 2 eggs which is then cut into strips. Also if you are using tuna, try and make sure that it's not bluefin tuna, as it's under threat!

Once again I can't give exact measurement of the ingredients, as I prepare everything by eye. I usually calculate half a cup of rice per 2 people, but that's as far as my actual calculations go...

Ingredients

Fish:
Salmon steak
Tuna steak
Packet of cooked king prawns
Small packet of crabsticks

Vegetables:
Cucumber
Red pepper
Avocado
Carrots
Spring onion


For the rice:
Japanese rice (it's sticky!)
Rice vinegar
Sugar
Salt

Seaweed sheets

Extras to serve:
Soy sauce
Wasabi
Pickled ginger

Preparation:
I like to prepare the rice a few hours ahead so that it has time to cool down.
In a large pot put the rice (as mentioned I calculate half a cup per 2 people) with double the amount of water and then a bit more (i.e. about half a cup extra per 1 cup of rice). A friend gave me the advice of then adding per 300g of rice the following amounts: 4 tablespoons of the rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 a tablespoon of salt. I put slightly less of each as I'm a bit scared that the tastes might overpower the rest of the ingredients. Bring the rice to the boil and simmer gently. Make sure you keep an eye on it and stir often, so it doesn't stick to the bottom. It takes about 20-30 minutes to cook. Once most of the water has been absorbed have a small taste. The rice should still be only slightly watery and al dente as it continues to absorb water once off the fire. And don't be alarmed by the slightly thick layer of substance formed while cooking. It's completely normal and it's this substance that makes the rice sticky!

About 30minutes before people arrive start cutting the fish and vegetables into strips. Cut some of the fish into slightly thicker pieces to serve as sashimi (plain raw fish).

Now the rolling can begin!
Tip: have a small bowl of water near you so you can wet your hands to make the rice handling easier and also to wash the stickyness off before rolling the seaweed.

Place a seaweed sheet infront of you, shiny side down and with the (barely visible) lines horizontal to you. Take a small handful of the rice and with your fingers flatten it out on to the sheet in a thin layer up to about half way up the sheet.

Layer the strips of vegetables and fish of your choice at the end nearest to you (bottom of the sheet)

Take the end nearest to you and roll the seaweed (over the filling) toward the upper end.

Dab the fold of the sheet with a bit of water to ensure that it sticks on properly.
Slice the roll into small bitesize pieces with a good sharp knife.

Serve with small bowls of soy sauce, wasabi paste and any other additions you may feel like.
Smiles all around!

A little tip from my dad: If you have extra vegetables and crabsticks/prawns you can make a refreshing salad by chopping them up into smaller bits and tossing them with a bit of vinegar and soy sauce.