It is the time of year when clean, fresh, healthy salads, redolent of sunny beaches and sun-ripened mangoes start to seriously appeal. Here is cordon-bleu trained chef Emma Tinne’s recipe for a salad that excites the taste buds and looks forwards to sunnier times.
Prawn, avocado and mango salad
Serves four people as a side dish, two as a main course.
Ingredients:
16 prawns – Mediterranean prawns
1 mango
2 ripe avocadoes
a handful of coriander leaves
a handful of mint
3 limes
1/4 of a garlic clove
1 red banana chilli – finely diced
1 teaspoon of palm sugar
2 teaspoons of Squid Ink fish sauce
1 Lebanese cucumber – finely sliced
2 bunches of wild rocket (arugula)
Method:
To make the nam pla-mix the palm sugar with fish sauce, chillis and garlic then add the juice of 2 limes. It should be sweet, sour and salty. Leave it is to infuse for 30 minutes, Put the rocket leaves on a platter, and add diced mango, diced avocado and Lebanese cucumber. Tuck sprigs of coriander and mint into the salad as it builds. Squeeze some limes over the peeled and cleaned prawns and leave. After 10 minutes place the prawns on the platter and pour nam-pla dressing over everything. Garnish with some wedges of lime.
The chef gets her prawns from fish and smoking specialist H. Formans 020 8525 2399. They deliver and do a wonderful range of smoked salmon and fresh fish. For the exotic ingredients, try a wonderful Thai shop in Notting Hill Gate called Tawana, 020 7221 6316, for all kinds of wonderful Asian ingredients. Twice a week fresh vegetables are flown in from Bangkok. Michanicou Brothers in Holland Park have wonderful fruit and vegetables, 020 7727 5191, and can get you anything you need.
Please contact Emma Tinne if you have any questions on private catering.
