Green Papaya Salad with Prawns and Meat

About two years ago upon my return from my honeymoon in Vietnam, I promised I was going to share with you some Vietnamese recipes but basically it went out of the window and I´ve hardly cooked anything Vietnamese since. One reason being that it´s difficult to find the ingredients where I live and the other being that I just haven´t got round to it.

I have cooked this salad before and enjoyed it so decided to make it again for my mum. It´s a lovely, refreshing salad, ideal for a hot summer´s day,which takes me right back to my honeymoon and the flavours of Vietnam. This salad is a bit of a faff to make though so I don´t do it on a regular basis but it´s great if you want to impress someone or for a special dinner party. This recipe is based on a recipe from the book Delicious Dishes from Vietnam.

Ingredients (for 2-3 people)

1 green papaya (about 450g)....if you can´t get a green papaya,a normal papaya will do
100g -150g pork belly
150g prawns (I think I used slightly less prawns as am not overkeen on prawns)
1 carrot, finely grated
a pinch of chili flakes or 1 jalapeño pepper,seeded,1/2 grated,1/2 minced
2 shallots, thinly sliced and soaked in vinegar for 10 minutes
2 tsp crushed garlic
50g roasted peanuts, crushed
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce (if you can´t find fish sauce, use soy sauce)
4 tsp salt
2 tbsp lime juice
1/4 cup coriander, chopped
fried shallots or crispy fried onion
1/4 cup vinegar
bag of ready-prepared prawn crackers

Method

1. Peel papaya,remove seeds and grate,add the grated carrot to the papaya.Sprinkle 2 tsp of salt on the carrot and papaya and squeeze out the juices,then rinse and drain well.
2. Wash prawns. Mix 1/4 cup of vinegar with 1/4 cup of water and 1 tsp of salt.Place prawns in a saucepan and boil in the vinegar mixture for 5 mins. I used frozen prawns but still cooked them in this way...if using fresh prawns, peel shells but leave the tails on.
3. Boil belly pork in 1/2 litre of water and 1 tsp of salt  for about 20 mins. When cooked, slice into 3cm long pieces.
4. Mix fish sauce, chili flakes, lime juice,garlic and sugar together.
5. Mix papaya, carrot, prawns, meat,shallots,coriander together with the fish sauce dressing.
6. Sprinkle salad with fried onions and peanuts and place prawn crackers around the salad attractively and enjoy the taste explosion in your mouth.

La Cabina, Ciudad Real

Last weekend was my birthday however I chose to celebrate it the weekend previous to that of my birthday as my mum was here. We decided to try out a fairly "new" restaurant that we hadn´t been to before,La Cabina. Located in Plaza de la Constitucion 18, it is a small but chic restaurant with modern and trendy decor.

We all settled on the menu of the day, which consisted of 3 courses with a few choices for each course and all for the reasonable price of 25 euros per person. The starter courses were a little disappointing for me as they all contained fish or seafood,which I´m not a big fan of. Both my mother and I plumped for the mango salad with prawns and a balsamic vinagrette(I asked for it without the prawns and they very kindly replaced the prawns with Iberian ham!)-a lovely, light and refreshing starter. My husband asked for a cod scrambled egg-and-fries dish,which he thoroughly enjoyed.

All three of us went for the same main course, pork tenderloin/sirloin in a Dijón mustard and honey style sauce with peppers and potato rosti.Beautifully cooked pork with a nice balanced tangy,sweet sauce and soft potato rosti but crisp on the outside...it was delicious. We all opted for something different for dessert, mainly so we could all try each other´s!! I went for the sweet potato and patisserie cream millefeuille, which despite being pastry and sweet potato was fairly light and delicate,Mum chose the pistachio truffles, very rich  chocolatey, nutty goodness and my husband´s choice was Pan de Calatrava, a typical dessert from the region, which is quite similar to flan.

 All in all, a lovely meal was had by all and the quality and quality was excellent for a fairly reasonable price. We´ll definitely be going again and I thoroughly reccommend this restaurant. Great service too.

Coronation Chicken Salad

After watching the Olympics Opening Ceremony, I have been very patriotric. Also, the fact that I´m off back to my home country this week for a holiday and to catch up with friends and family is filling me with excitement! So what could be more ideal than to share a traditional English dish perfect for the summer, especially the hot weather (even if it´s not so hot in the UK at the mo!).

This is Coronation Chicken Salad based on the BBC Good Food recipe- I did the creamy version!Coronation Chicken was invented in 1953 by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. This is my version, just slightly different but not much!

Ingredients (for 2)
1 bag of mixed salad leaves
2 skinless chicken breasts
1tsp mild curry powder
2tbsp mild mango chutney
1/2 cucumber, cut into sticks
2tbsp flaked almonds
handful of sultanas
4tbsp natural yoghurt
3tbsp olive oil
juice of 1/2 lime or lemon (I used lime)

Method
1. Combine curry powder with  2 tbsp of yoghurt and cover chicken breasts.
2. Cook in 1 tbsp of olive oil,then slice chicken.
3.Stir remaining yoghurt, mango chutney and lime juice together.
4. Place salad leaves, cucumber and chicken slices in a bowl and add the yoghurt,lime and mango chutney dressing, add almonds and sultanas and toss!

You could make this healthier or more low fat if you use low fat natural yoghurt.

Goat´s Cheese and Cranberry Salad

I´m so excited as this is the first time I´ve taken part in a blog event! Nuría over at Spanish Recipes is hosting a new bimonthly event Eating Good Feeling Good which will look at a different ingredient from the Food Pyramid in each event. The first ingredient of this month´s event is olive oil and I knew as soon as I saw it I knew which recipe I would be submitting!

Living in Spain I have been converted to olive oil and use it every day in my cooking from frying to salad dressings.I even use it for Chinese stir-frys!! My favourite ways to use olive oil is for frying and in salad dressings. However, I still can´t get used to putting it on toast in the mornings for breakfast and I prefer a mild olive oil as it doesn´t have quite as strong a taste as Extra Virgin Olive Oil, so it is more versatile and can be used in all types of dishes. Although olive oil is very good for your health, it is still a fat and I only use a little when frying-one bottle lasts me for at least a month!I believe that olive oil is good for your health because it is rich is monounsaturated fats which lower the risk of coronary heart disease and it actually lowers the cholesterol in your body.

Anyway, although olive oil is not strictly the main ingredient in this recipe, it is a very important ingredient in the recipe. As the days are starting to get warmer (at least they were!) sometimes it´s too hot to be slaving over a hot oven, so a salad is just what you need. And what could be healthier than a salad? The idea for this salad came from a recipe I saw for Goat´s cheese and Cherry salad in Allrecipes which I adapted to what I had in my fridge at the time and it has become a firm favourite. I think the flavours just blend together really well, the tart sweetness of the cranberries and pear with the crisp tang of the lettuce leaves and the creamy bite of the goats cheese.

Ingredients (serves 2 as a main dish)

85g bag of mixed salad (baby leaf salad is particularly good)

1 medium/large ripe Conference pear, peeled and chopped

1/3-1/2 cup dried cranberries

55g goats cheese, chopped or crumbled

a couple of slices (smoked) ham or turkey, chopped (optional)

pinch of salt to taste

about 1 tbsp mild olive oil

about 1 tsp red wine vinegar

Method

1. Place ingredients in a bowl.

2. Season with salt and dress with the olive oil and red wine vingear. Toss to cover salad completely with the dressing.