My garlic king prawn, mushroom and asparagus salad

Ingredients (for 2-4 people) :

• 12 raw king prawns (give or take, depending on your appetite and financial health), de-veined and peeled (note: you can leave the tail on for presentation)
• A large handful of asparagus (note: you can add more asparagus if you wish to bulk up the dish, or less asparagus if you wish to make prawns the star)
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 large red chilli, de-seeded and chopped finely (note: if you want it extra hot, you can use birdseye chilli instead)
• 6 button mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1 small knob of butter (30 grams give or take)
• Olive oil
• 1 lime (for garnish)
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 teaspoon of praprika (note: you can use smoked or sweet praprika in this dish, as both would go well with the prawns)
• 1 small knob of ginger, grated
• Salt and pepper (if you want it extra hot, use white pepper instead of black)

Peel the asparagus and blanch in salty boiling water for 30 seconds. Dump the cooked asparagus in icy water to stop the cooking process. Set aside.

Heat the pan over medium high heat, add olive oil and butter. When butter has melted, add prawns, garlic, ginger, salt, pepper and praprika. Sautee till prawns have changed colour and started to caramelize, it should take about 3-5 minutes (depending on the size of your pan, size of prawns, quality of pan, etc). Add chopped chilli and lemon juice. Cook for another minute or two, and take the prawns out of the pan. In the same pan, cook the chopped mushrooms with a little salt and pepper. You may wish to add a little more butter to the pan at this stage (note: if you cook the mushrooms and the prawns together, the mushrooms would give too much liquid for the prawns to caramelize). Cook the mushrooms till soft.

In a large bowl, mix the prawns, mushrooms and asparagus. Tip the pan juice into the bowl. Garnish the salad with some fresh red chili and a couple of wedges of lime.

Take it up a notch

Keep the prawn heads and shells, as that’s where you'd find most of the prawny flavour. In a hot pan, add olive oil and the prawn heads/shells, and cook them till they turn red. Drain the heads/shells well and squeeze out as much of the prawn ‘essence’ as you can from them before discarding. Use the flavoured oil to cook your prawns, and what you get is a flavour boost!

The best summer salad ever

Ingredients (for 4 people):

• 500 grams of prawns, cooked with garlic and peeled
• 2-3 large avocados, scooped out and chopped
• 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes, sliced
• 1 large cos lettuce, torn
• Cooked sweet corn kernels
• ½ Spanish onion, chopped finely
• A handful of red radishes, sliced
• Deep-fried shallots (you can buy from any Asian supermarket, if you cannot be bothered deep frying your own)
• 1 lemon
• Salt and pepper

At this point, you are 90% there! All there is left to do is mix all the ingredients in a large bowl, squeeze lemon juice and season with salt and pepper, and voilà ! This salad is perfect for summer, as it is quick, easy with readily-available seasonal ingredients, and most importantly, it is SOOOO delicious. The sweetness of the prawns and corn, and the smoothness of the avocado work, so well with the tanginess of the lemon juice and cherry tomatoes, and the spiciness of the red radishes and spanish onion. The crunchy deep-fried shallots and crisp lettuce compliment the smooth texture of the ripe avocado beautifully. This salad can be eaten as a light meal on its own. It can also be eaten as a filling with tortilla.

Red pepper, green bean, red radish and egg salad

Ingredients (for 4 people):

·         A large bowl of green beans, trimmed

·         2 hard boiled eggs

·         2 large red peppers

·         4-6 red radishes

·         1 large clove of garlic

·         Good quality balsamic vinegar

·         Extra virgin olive oil

·         Salt and cracked black pepper

Blanch the trimmed green beans in salty boiling water for 1 minute. Tip the water out and set aside the blanched beans. (Note: if you want extra crunchy green beans, tip the hot water out, and dump the beans in icy water to stop the cooking process)

Deseed the red peppers, and cut in strips. Heat olive oil in a pan, add garlic and sauté till translucent. Add pepper strips, salt and pepper, and a dash of balsamic vinegar, cook till the peppers have softened. Set aside the cooked peppers and garlic.

Chop the red radishes and slice the hard boiled eggs.

In a large salad bowl (note: you need a large salad bowl for this, as a large bowl allows room for the ingredients to soak up the salad dressing), combine the cooked peppers, garlic, green beans, eggs, and red radishes, drizzle balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil to generously coat the ingredients, add salt and black pepper to taste, and bon appétit!!

This mouth-watering salad would go well with grilled meat/fish and a creamy mash, as the tanginess of the salad cuts through the richness of the creamy mash. It would not go well with dishes that are high in acidity, like tomato-based stews, as the acidity in the tomato sauce and the acidity in the salad dressing would almost certainly cause stomach reflux! 

Variations:

You can roast the peppers and garlic to bring out their natural sugar. Garlic croutons can be added to make it a main-meal salad. Strips of grilled beef can be added to the salad. There are many variations you can experiment with, the key is to get the basic flavour combinations right.