KING PRAWN & GREEN PAPAYA SALAD WITH NAM JIM DRESSING

SERVES 4, OR 8 AS PART OF A SHARED ASIAN BANQUET

Instead of using cooked prawns, you can marinate raw ones in the lime juice for 3 minutes. This gives the prawns an interesting texture and is probably my favourite way to eat prawns.

12 large cooked king prawns (shrimp), peeled, deveined and tails intact

½ small green papaya, seeded and skin removed, julienned

2 small Lebanese (short) cucumbers, halved lengthways, seeded and thinly sliced on the angle into half moons

250 g (9 oz) cherry tomatoes, halved

1 small French shallot (eschalot), peeled and thinly sliced

1 small handful coriander (cilantro) leaves

1 small handful Thai basil leaves

1 small handful mint leaves, roughly torn

1 small handful Vietnamese mint leaves, roughly torn

NAM JIM DRESSING

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

4 coriander (cilantro) roots, finely chopped

½ teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons light palm sugar (jaggery), crumbled

2 tablespoons fish sauce

½ fresh long red chilli, seeded and finely chopped

½ fresh long green chilli, seeded and finely chopped

juice of 2 large limes

For the dressing, pound the garlic, coriander roots and sea salt in a mortar with a pestle until a rough paste forms. Remove and place in a bowl.

Dissolve the palm sugar in the fish sauce in a mortar, ensuring there are no lumps of sugar. Add the garlic and coriander mix, along with the red and green chillies and stir well to combine. Add the lime juice. Taste and adjust if necessary to ensure there is a balance of sweet, sour and salty.

Mix all the salad ingredients together in a large bowl and add enough dressing to wet the salad. Mix through thoroughly. Share between four plates and top with any leftover dressing. Serve immediately.

NOTE: Any seafood, or a combination of a few types such as prawns and scallops, works well in this salad. To give the dressing its sourness and a different flavour you can use tamarind instead of lime juice or a combination of tamarind and lime juice.