A delightful Monday lunch! - Chicken, Prawn & Fruit Salad

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. 

Cj x