Preparation time
less than 30 mins
Cooking time
10 to 30 mins
Serves
Serves 4
Hairy Bikers recipes
From The Hairy Bikers' Asian Adventure
Ingredients
For the dressing
- 2 heaped tbsp grated palm sugar
- 5 tbsp Thai fish sauce
- 3 tbsp fresh lime juice
For the crispy noodles
- vegetable oil, for deep fat frying
- 125g/4½oz vermicelli or thin rice noodles
- 5 Thai shallots or 1 banana shallot, thinly sliced
- 400g/14oz raw tiger prawns, peeled and deveined (feel free to leave the shell on some of the prawns if preferred)
- 1 small thumb-sized piece fresh root ginger
- 3 garlic cloves, grated or crushed
- thumb-sized piece galangal, finely grated
- at least 3 spring onions, cut lengthways and thinly sliced
- 150g/5½oz beansprouts
- 3 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
- 200g/7oz freshly picked white crab meat
- handful coriander leaves, roughly chopped
- handful picked mint leaves (do not chop or the leaves will go brown)
- handful picked holy basil (normal basil will do if not available)
- 1 long red chilli, sliced on the diagonal for garnish
- 2 limes, cut into wedges
Method
-
For the dressing, add the palm sugar and fish sauce to a small bowl and mix well to dissolve the sugar. Add the lime juice and set aside.
-
For the crispy noodles, heat the oil for deep-fat frying in a deep fryer, wok or large saucepan to 180-190C/250F-375F. When it is ready, a small cube of bread should become crisp and golden-brown and float to the top in a few seconds. Cook the vermicelli – do this in batches. Fry until puffed up and turning a pale golden-brown colour. Carefully remove using a slotted spoon and drain on a plate lined with kitchen paper.
-
Add three tablespoons of vegetable oil to a wok or saucepan. Fry the Thai shallots (or banana shallot) until crisp. Remove from the pan and set aside to drain on kitchen paper.
-
Add another tablespoon of vegetable oil to the wok. When hot, add the prawns and stir or toss until slightly opaque.
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Add the ginger, garlic, and galangal and fry for a couple of minutes. Stir until the prawns are cooked – no longer than a minute. Transfer into a large bowl with the crisp shallots.
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Add the spring onions, bean sprouts, lime leaves, and crabmeat. Pour in the dressing and the herbs. Mix well, but gently as you do not want to bruise the herbs – use your hands for this.
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Layer the salad up in a large serving bowl, by putting a layer of crisp noodles on the bottom and a layer of prawn and crab mixture on top, then repeat until you have used up all the ingredients. Garnish with slithers of chilli and lime wedges and serve straight away.