Salads and grilled chicken
Summer's a great time to have cold tangy salads. Had a potluck with
misawong and the rest of the Singaporeans last night and the theme was cold foods. I made a Thai squid salad, tomato basil salad, and a green tea chiffon cake.
misawong made some hummus and grilled chicken wings. We also had coleslaw, pasta salad, and ribs.
As I was busy dogsitting for a friend over the weekend and had 2 other socials to attend, I came up with 2 extremely easy elegant salads to make. The recipe for the squid salad is from my friend, Susan. Both can be made well ahead of time (in fact, for the squid salad, it's ideal to let it stand in the dressing overnight for maximum flavor).
Thai Squid Salad
Ingredients: (Reduce / increase the different ingredients according to how tangy, how salty, or how spicy you'll like it to be)
Squids, about 9 medium sized squids, cut into rings and steamed for about 3 minutes
2-3 stalks lemongrass, chopped
2 kaffir lime leaves, chopped
3 Thai chilli peppers, chopped finely
4 medium shallots, chopped finely
Juice of 1 lemon
4 tsp Mae Ploy brand chilli paste
8 tsp fish sauce
4 tsp brown sugar
2 stalks cilantro, chopped
In a medium sized bowl, whisk the fish sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice, and chilli paste together. Taste the mixture to see if you'll like to adjust it for saltiness, sweetness, or sourness. Once you are satisfied with the taste of the dressing, toss in the squids, kaffir lime leaves, chilli, shallots, and lemongrass. Finish off with the chopped cilantro. Chill until ready to serve.
Note: This recipe also works well with prawns.
Tomato Basil Salad
Ingredients: (Add according to taste!! The following is just a guesstimation of how much I used)
Cherry tomatoes, halved (about a pound)
2 stalks of fresh basil, chopped
Balsamic vinegar, about 2 tbs
Extra virgin olive oil, about 1-2 tbs
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Toss all the ingredients together and chill it until ready to serve. May also be served together with slices of fresh mozzarella.
And finally....here's
misawong's chicken wings. Chris, tell me if I'm missing in any ingredients!!
Ingredients:
Worcestershire sauce
Mae Ploy brand chilli paste
Vietnamese chilli paste
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
Cumin powder
Corriander powder
Chicken wings
Let the wings stand in the marinate for at least 3 hours before grilling.