Thai Salmon Salad with Yam Dressing

I think many people agree when I say that moving out from an apartment can be so nerve-wrecking. Today it’s been (again) so incredibly beautiful day that it would have felt like a waste to spend it indoors. That is because here up North you can never know if the summer lasts for three months, three weeks or three days. That’s why every day of warmth and sun should be embraced like it was the last one.

Another reason to get out of the apartment today was of course to say good-byes for now to all the friends. As I don’t know when will we meet again, even though I know that day is not so far away. I felt slightly sad anyway, those people have been very important during the months here, where me an S don’t practically know more than a handful of people. So now, after a day in the sun with friends our apartment is still a total mess, which means  tomorrow we can only hope it will be cold and rainy! Because tomorrow for me means scrubbing, rubbing, wiping, washing, vacuuming, arranging, and finally, packing.

To the point: Sun usually makes me less hungry, which is great, because I sometimes feel my stomach is bottomless. So tonight our dinner was salad. I love salads and I would like to have more of them, but for some reason S is not completely agreeing in this. I assume for a man a salad for dinner is not quite enough to feel satisfied. And because it doesn’t make much sense to prepare different food for each of us, we rarely have salads. This time the inspiration for the salad came from my dear friend who one day gave me a coconut. So of course I had to prepare something out of it! I have never opened a coconut, but luckily the South American of the house knows how to do the thing. And so beautifully it opened, like an egg, by just using a knife. I’m impressed!

I’m also so happy we decided to use the coconut in exactly this dish, because I think we found a new favorite again! Underlining the word we, as S loved it too. I might have told he’s a big fan of Thai food, after I introduced him to the wonders of this intriguing cuisine. This salad was a nice change for our weekly red/green/yellow/massaman/panang curry tradition.

The recipe I took from the newest edition of a Finnish magazine Olivia, and as it’s not online (at least yet), here it comes for you to take and save in your archives! The original recipe calls for fresh mint, but as our market had run out of it, I substituted it with a same amount of fresh coriander.

Thai Salmon Salad with Yam Dressing (serves 3, or 2 very hungry ones)

400g fresh salmon fillet

0,5 teaspoon salt

1 shallot onion

1dl grated coconut

1 English cucumber

100g long green beans

big bunch of lettuce of your choice (NOT iceberg), roughly torn

1dl fresh mint, chopped

For the dressing:

1-3 small, very hot chillies, thinly sliced

3 kaffir lime leaves (frozen or fresh, I used frozen), cut into thin strips

1 teaspoon fresh chili paste, like sambal oelek or alike (use more if your chillies are not hot)

5 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

4 tablespoons Thai fish sauce

4 tablespoons coconut cream

2 tablespoons palm sugar

Whisk together the ingredients of the dressing and refrigerate.

Open the coconut. Now I did not do this, like I told, so I cannot really tell how to do it. But I googled and found many tutorials which show the proper way to open your coconut, so you might wanna take a look in case you’re not already a pro in this :-) Grate the coconut.

Thinly slice the shallot and cut the cucumber into 0,5cm strips. Boil the beans in a saucepan for 3 minutes, drain, let cool and cut in 2-3 pieces.

Spread the lettuce on the serving plate and top with cucumbers, green beans, shallots, grated coconut and chopped mint. 

Cut the salmon fillet into strips (about 2cm x 4cm) and sprinkle with salt. Heat up a teflon coated skillet over a medium-high heat and cook the salmon pieces quickly, about half to one minute on each side without oil or butter.

Pour the dressing on the salad base and place the salmon pieces on top. Garnish with some fresh coriander.

French Potato Salad

Potato salad is a dish that for me strongly associates to summer. It brings to my mind the sunny BBQ days and picnics in parks. It’s simple to prepare, it’s easy to take with you, it’s flavorous, filling and thus makes a perfect side dish. Potato salad seems to be also quite European thing. Here in Finland you can find commercially produced mayo based potato salad in every grocery store. I try to avoid all convenience food in my diet as far as possible, so I rather prepare my own. When I was living in Berlin I noticed that the Germans are crazy about potato salad and in the markets you could find a wide range of different sorts of potato salads, with veggies, with meats etc.

On the other hand, for my Brazilian boyfriend the typical potato salad was not typical at all. He was wondering how eagerly the guests attacked the potato salad I had prepared when we celebrated the beginning of spring. And indeed, when we were living in Brazil and holding a big party with lots of food I had prepared, the potato salad remained untouched for a lot of time, until all the other food had ended. And even then, the locals very shyly tasted it. 

Anyway, this is a recipe I prepared for this year’s May Day celebration. It’s a very simple, basic salad which you can modify according to your taste by adding herbs, spinach, olives, cheese, dried tomatoes, sky’s the limit.

Simple French Potato Salad

1,5kg firm potatoes (new potatoes work best)

1 big red onion

2 spring onions, finely chopped + more to garnish

small bunch parsley, finely chopped

100ml good olive oil

3 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons honey dijon mustard (if you use basic dijon, add also 1 tablespoon light brown sugar)

salt & freshly ground black pepper

Bring water to a boil in a big pot or a steamer pot. I prefer using a steamer pot when cooking vegetables, as I live in an illusion that it would better reserve the flavors, colors and vitamins in them. Carefully wash the potatoes and cook them for 20-30 minutes, depending on the size until cooked but not overcooked. Test with a fork after 20 minutes. Once the potatoes are ready, take off the heat and let cool.

While the potatoes cook, cut the vegetables and prepare the dressing. Finley chop the spring onions and parsley. Cut red onion in thin rings.

Whisk together all the remaining ingredients (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey dijon mustard, salt and pepper).

When the potatoes have cooled down, peel them if they have a thick skin. If you use new potatoes, don’t peel. Cut the potatoes into bite-size chunks. 

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients well together so that all the potatoes cover with the dressing. Let the salad rest in a fridge for one to two hours, so that all the flavors absorb in the potatoes.

Garnish with spring onions and/or herbs.