A lovely productive morning in brew followed by a delightful Monday lunch. If you're looking for something slightly unusual, light and splendidly healthy to help brighten your day, this is one for you.
CHICKEN, PRAWN
& FRUIT SALAD
Yam Polamai in
Madhur Jaffrey’s Far Eastern Cookery
I have slightly amended the recipe as the original is pretty complicated but these quantities made a perfect amount of lunch for 3 hungry adults!
Salt
1 large apple
(Granny Smith suggested)
150g medium to
large red or black grapes, preferable seedless
150g medium to
large green grapes, preferable seedless
1 medium orange
3 cloves of garlic
(more are suggested but we did 1 per person)
90g shallots or
onions
Oil for deep
frying
100g cooked
chicken breast, boned and skinned
8 medium or
approx. 16 small cooked, peeled prawns
4 tablespoons
roasted peanuts (we used salted and they went with the dish just fine)
1 teaspoon sugar
3 teaspoons fresh
lime or lemon juice
2-3 fresh hot
green chilies
2 tablespoons
fresh coriander leaves
So, how do you do it?
Combine 1 teaspoon
of salt with 1 pint (600 ml) water in a small bowl or jug. Peel and core the
apple and cut into 0.5-0.75cm, dice. As you cut and dice, put the apple pieces
into the salted water. Set aside.
Halve the grapes
lengthways and remove seeds where necessary. Put the grapes into a bowl. Peel the
orange, separate the segments and skin them as best you can. Cut each segment
in half, so the orange segments are a similar size to the grapes and make sure
to remove all the piff. Lay the orange pieces over the grapes. Cover and set
aside.
Peel the garlic,
cut into thin slices and cut the slices into fine slivers. Peel the onion (or
shallots if you prefer), slice and thinly chop them so they are nice and small.
Pour the oil (to a
depth of about 2 cm) into a medium sized frying pan or wok and place over a
medium to low heat. While waiting for the oil to heat up, place a sieve over a
bowl near the frying pan and spread some kitchen roll over a large plate. When
the oil is hot, put in the garlic slivers and stir and fry until they turn
golden. Empty the oil and garlic into the sieve; once the garlic has drained,
spread it out on the plate over one half of the kitchen paper.
Put the oil in the
bowl back into the frying pan and set over a medium- low heat. Replace the
sieve over the bowl. When the oil has reheated, put the onions (or shallots) in
and fry, stirring until they are golden brown and crisp. Empty the contents of
the pan into the sieve and once the onions have drained spread them over the
remaining kitchen paper.
Shred the cooked
chicken into thin pieces, remove any bones or skin. Cut the prawns into 0.5 –
0.75 cm dice, combine with the chicken and set aside.
Crush the peanuts
lightly – put them into a polythene bag and hit them gently, you could used a
rolling pin to crush them. Be sure to not hit them too hard and damage your
surfaces! Set them aside.
Combine the sugar
and lime juice and mix. Cut the chilies and coriander small.
Drain the apples
and pat them dry. Toss all the ingredients together in a large bowl and drizzle
over the lime juice and tadaaaa you have a spectacular lunch or delightful
dinner!
TOP TIP; This
tasty Thai salad will certainly impress and though there may seem to be quite a few ingredients it doesn’t actually take too long to
prepare. Certainly worth it getting it together, the taste is just delightful! I loved it and I hope you do too.
I absolutely love a trip to the Southbank Centre and have been going to see various exhibitions for as long as I can remember. The World Press Photo of the Year Exhibition 2014 was another fantastic, thought provoking event to add to the long list of stimulating exhibitions I have been lucky enough to explore. 
