Seasonal local food recipe No.359 – Vietnamese salad with tiger prawns

Frank made this delicious salad for Friday’s supper.  If you don’t eat prawns you could substitute with some fried tofu or just have the salad as is.  Frank used the radishes and bean sprouts from this week’s veg boxes for an extra bit of crunch!

Serves 4 for a starter or 2 for a main

Preparation time: 30-40 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
8 tiger prawns, peeled and de-veined (we used frozen)
1 bunch fresh mint leaves
1 bunch fresh coriander
200g cucumber
2 shallots
100g bean sprouts
small bunch radishes, sliced
40g cashew nuts
150g pomelo or grapefruit
For the dressing:
2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp fish sauce
4 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic
1 small red chilli (eg bird’s-eye)

Method
First make the dressing because you’ll use it to marinate your prawns.  Very finely chop or mince the garlic and chilli.  Place these in an empty jar and then add all the other dressing ingredients.  Shake well until the sugar dissolves.  Taste – you can adjust the level of spice, saltiness, sweetness or sourness according to your tastes.  Place the prawns in a dish and pour over a little of the dressing, just enough to coat.  Refrigerate while you prepare the other ingredients.

Deseed and cut the cucumber into fine matchsticks and place in a bowl.  Next, finely slice the shallots and add these.  Then prepare the pomelo/grapefruit – remove the skin from each segment so you only have the juicy centre.  Break the segments into chunks.  Add to the bowl along with the chopped mint and coriander and the beansprouts.

Finally prepare the cashew nuts.  Spread them out on a baking sheet and bake in a hot oven for about 5 minutes until they are golden.  Alternatively you could brown them under a hot grill.  Once they have cooled coarsely chop them and add them to the salad.

Next cook the prawns.  Heat a griddle pan on a high flame with a little olive oil.  Once the oil is hot place your prawns in the pan.  Cook until the prawns are pink and firm but they should not become tough – about 2 minutes each side should be enough.  Take the prawns off the heat and allow to rest while you dress and plate the salad.  Dress the salad and divide evenly between the plates before placing the prawns on top.

Seasonal local food recipe No. 282 – Radish and cucumber salad

This simple recipe appeared in issue 29 of the FoodLover magazine which celebrates West Country food.

Serves 4
Cooking and preparation time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
1 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 cucumber
20 radishes
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp red wine vinegar
rock salt
handful of rocket leaves

Method
Heat a small frying pan, add the oil then add the mustard and fennel seeds and cook for a few minutes until they become fragrant and start to pop but don’t burn.  Set aside to cool.

Slice the cucumber and the radishes into thin disks and arrange on a platter.  Combine the cooled oil and seeds with the red wine vinegar and season with rock salt to taste.  Drizzle the dressing over the cucumber and radish and then scatter with the rocket.

Seasonal local food recipe No.278 – Hugh’s radishes with butter and salt

This is a simple, time-honoured way of serving radishes, taken from Veg every day by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  You need to use very fresh, little roots as they quickly lose their crunch and peppery flavour.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Ingredients
About 400g radishes
A pat of unsalted butter, at room temperature but not too soft
A little dish of best quality flaky sea salt

Method
Clean the radishes.  Arrange everything on the table and make sure each diner has a knife.  To eat, just smear a little bit of butter on the end of a radish then sprinkle with the tiniest pinch of salt before popping into your mouth.

Seasonal local food recipe No.221 – Maharashtrian radish salad

This is from Classic Indian Recipes by Manju Malhi.  It’s a quick salad with a simple dressing of lemon juice and salt, the main flavours coming from the chilli and coriander. The recipe says to grate the radishes but I have found finely slicing them to be perfectly adequate and easier on the fingers!

Serves 2-3

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
150g radishes, topped and tailed
1 small white onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1 green finger chilli, finely chopped
2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped
2 tsp lemon juice
30g coriander leaves, roughly chopped

Method
Coarsely grate or finely slice the radishes and mix with the rest of the ingredients.  Serve as a fresh relish with a curry.