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.

Crazy About Pad Thai

It’s pretty weird I still haven’t posted any Thai food recipe, even that is definitely (alongside of Italian) the kind of food we cook most at home. Especially Thai curries are our favorites, because they’re flavorous, they are extremely quick and simple to do, and they have a real kick in them. I have never been to Thailand myself, but learned to love their food here in Finland, in Thai restaurants and in friends’ homes.

When me and my boyfriend started to date in 2009, it was one of the first times we went out in bars together and ended up eating whatever we could find in my fridge late at night. That day I had prepared me some red curry and so we devoured the leftovers with a good appetite - at least I did. For my significant one that was rather a strange experience, simply because he had never tasted Thai food before. However, something changed that night and since then he’s been a huge fan. It’s actually him, who requires us to have at least one Thai dinner in a week.

One of my favorites of Thai cuisine is pad thai. Along times I’ve tried to find a proper recipe for this dish by googling, but there’s always something that could be done better. This is why I have always done my own version of it. Actually it’s about a time for me to write the recipe down, as I always forget how I prepared it last time, and have to start all over again. In fact, I start losing the memory of preparing this delicious noodle dish already, but I’ll try to be as precise as possible with the amounts of ingredients.

And PS. I totally FORGOT the egg from my previous pad thai, that’s why you can’t see it in the pics ;)

The Best Pad Thai in Western World (serves 3-4)

200g flat dry rice noodles

150g firm tofu, cubed

1 tablespoon canola oil

200g shrimps (I use frozen ones but peel and devein yours, if raw)

150g bean sprouts, washed and drained

2 cloves garlic, very finely minced

2 eggs

50ml salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

4 spring onions, finely chopped

handful of fresh coriander, coarsely chopped

lime wedges, to garnish

For the sauce:

6 tablespoons Thai fish sauce

50ml fresh lime juice

3 tablespoons ketjap manis

1 tablespoon palm sugar

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

2 heaping teaspoons tamarind paste

2 teaspoons chili paste or one fresh red chili, finely chopped

Bring water to a boil in a large sauce pan. Break the noodle nests slightly smaller an boil according to the package instructions. Cooking time for rice noodles is usually very short, around 1-3 minutes depending on thickness. It’s better to leave the noodles a bit al dente and elastic, as they cook slightly more when added into the wok. Rinse ready noodles with cold water, drain and set aside.

Mix all the sauce ingredients well together, until the sugar dissolves. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat lightly.

Heat up a wok pan and fry tofu cubes over a medium heat without oil until they’re slightly golden on each side. When ready, add 1 tablespoon of canola oil, the shrimps (if you use raw ones, fry them for 1 minute before adding the next ingredients), garlic, bean spouts and drained noodles. Stir fry for 1 minute.

Make some room in your wok and pour the beaten eggs in the pan. Scramble until almost cooked, then mix with the rest of the ingredients on the pan. 

Lastly, add in the pad thai sauce, 3 chopped spring onions and half of the crushed peanuts. Stir fry for a minute or two more, until everything is cooked and well incorporated.

Garnish with rest of the spring onion, peanuts and fresh coriander. Serve with lemon wedges and shriracha.