Thai fruit salad with zap & zing
Another recipe courtesy of peter!
This really is a salad with a difference. There is no added oil but it has elements of savory, sweet, sour and spicy.
The edges between desert fruits and savory fruits are quite blurred in Asia compared to ideas we have in the west. Both have the right idea and neither is wrong.
This salad is used as a weight controlling aid and is a good source of flavor and satisfaction.
Ingredients:
firm fruits
green papaya; julienned
jack fruit: segments (pitted)
lychees(pitted)
rambutans (pitted)*
just ripened honey tomatoes or some other cherry style tomato
soft fruits:
tangerines,
grapes,
mango
mangosteens (pitted)
other fruits:
bird's eye chilies (1 or 2)
other ingredients;
sugar
lime juice (of one or two small fruit)
fish sauce
white vinegar.
Method:
pound the chillie(s) in a mortar with a tablespoon of freshly squeezed lime juice
add some green papaya julienned and pound this to bruise it.
Add a teaspoon of fish sauce. Add halved miniature tomatoes. Pound a few seconds more turning the contents with a spoon.
Tip the contents into a larger bowl and add a tablespoon of sugar and mix.
Add the other fruits and a teaspoon (max) of white vinegar.
Mix and taste.
Make adjustments with juice/vinegar/sugar/fish sauce to your own liking.
Stand for approx half an hour then serve. (have a glass of water with this dish can be spicy!)
I hope you enjoy.
*from http://thaifood.about.com/od/howtopreparethaifruit/ss/rambutanfruit.htm rambutans are grown in Thailand as well as Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Australia. Most rambutans are red, but in Malaysia a smaller, yellow rambutan can also be found. Rambutans grow in clusters on evergreen trees, and are hairy-looking exotic wonders!
I have seen these in the Asian markets from time to time.
