My first contribution: Thai prawn salad

My first add here: a healthy, tasty quick ’n’ easy summer dish which just uses the classic Thai flavours: lemongrass, limes and coriander.

For the prawns:
Raw peeled prawns (about 200g per person)
Red birds-eye chillies (to taste)
Spring onions (about 2 per person)
Lemongrass
Garlic (lots!)
Fresh coriander (lots and lots)
8+ Fresh limes

For the salad:
Green salad
Cucumber
Red pepper

Use fresh ingredients please; otherwise it ends up just tasting bland.

Prepare the salad first in a big bowl. I like to keep it fairly simple: just green salad with cucumber for a fresh lift and red pepper to add a sweetness to contrast with the spicy prawns. Lots of rocquet(/rocket for the American readers who can’t spell this, or racquet or cheque for that matter) is good for a nice peppery bite, particularly if you get organic which actually has flavour, as opposed to the bleached and bland supermarket stuff. If you want to make it look authentic, peel the cucumber. (This is fairly standard in SE Asia, where cucumber skins are thicker and somewhat bitter.) I also put some of the spring onions in raw or some finely-chopped red onions. Sometimes I add cherry tomatoes if I have any, but they’re not really necessary. Don’t dress the salad: the spiced-up lime juice from the prawns does this for you.

Next juice the limes so you have it ready. You need lots and lots of juice, so at least 8 limes. Go for pale green limes: these are the juiciest. By the time limes reach dark green they’ve shrivelled up a bit inside.

Now for the prawns. You must, must, must use uncooked prawns. Cooking with precooked prawns is an abomination: they end up flavourless and lose all their succulence. Start by frying on a medium heat the spring onions, lemon grass (slice it up small or — and this is the only place I will permit you to use non-fresh ingredients — use lemongrass purée) and the chillies. How many chillies you add is up to you: but I like this dish very spicy. Again, if you want to be authentic just chop up the chillies, seeds and all; but the seeds are slightly bitter (and the strip which attaches the seeds to the chilli is also, by the way, the hottest part of a chilli) so you may want to de-seed them first. Don’t add the garlic at this point: garlic burns and turns bitter very quickly if you’re frying and you should always add it later.

Once the onion has softened, turn the heat up high, and add the prawns and the crushed garlic. Prawns should be cooked very hot very fast to keep them as succulent as possible: by the time they’ve all turned pink they’re probably done.

Throw in the fresh coriander — and you need lots and lots of this; probably a whole bunch. It rapidly reduces down in size like spinach; when it has done so pour the lime juice over, let it sizzle away for a few seconds and then whop the whole lot on top of the salad. Mmmmm… quick, easy, and tasty-tasty.