Watermelon & Feta Salad (Karpouzi Me Feta)

Like a magnet, I directed my steps towards one of the narrow streets leading into the city centre. It was a hot day by my standard but not for the sun lovers of this beach city ~ the largest in the Belgian Coast. I'm not a sun worshipper since childhood days. I disliked putting sun lotion/sun block repeatedly on my face and body to be bake like lobster :-P Besides, few days ago a documentary in TV5 Monde showed that certain chemicals in sun block caused coral bleaching, increased skin cancer and a research done in Zurich discovered certain chemicals in sunblock brands caused genital deformation in rats (sorry, animal lovers... I think in this case, it's unavoidable) which I definitely not going to apply it on my son or on any kids! I'm going to get an organic sun block for the family in my next shopping trip :-) If you need to go out to the beach or errands, wear proper sun protector ~ proper clothing, hat, umbrella, sunglass, synthetic-free chemical sunblock and stay in the shade as much as possible. Be safe and still enjoy the warmth of the sunshine!

Now, back to this little street I mentioned earlier... Under the influence of the hot sun, there's only one thing focused in my mind ~ watermelon! Standing at its usual spot was the shop I usually tagged along for fast (also emergency) and convenient food supply. What surprised me was, right in front of me was a large crate of... Greek Watermelons! Yep... all the way from Hellas! My hubby jokingly said the fruits must had been following us back! :-D

During my recent trip to Athens, Greece I had the opportunity to taste some fabulous local fruits from the organic farmers' market. One of such fruits is the large oblong shaped, sweet, juicy and red watermelon! I was treated with watermelon and feta cheese salad in my Greek friend's home. I read somewhere long time ago about this weird combination but to taste it right in front of me, is a heaven sent! :-D As I searched further into this salad, some people added red onions, fresh mint, olives, red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar and some don't. Can any Greek foodies furnish me with more info about this salad?

For my easy version, I used half of the watermelon (the other half reserved only for me!) and a packet of Dodoni Feta Cheese AOP/PDO (200g) which I found creamier and milder than the traditional sheep's milk Greek feta. There are certain ingredients that I didn't added in as I don't have them in the pantry at that moment but the combination of tastes were great even with simplest basic ingredients. This recipe is for my Greek friend, who's also my son's 'nounos', Axilleas S. in mind with no raw onions added. It's 'yucks' for him! Thank you for the fabulous meli (from the beekeeper-seller at the back of your house) and the several litres of best quality extra virgin olive oil which had me worried about the transporting condition throughout the airports :-P

Watermelon & Feta Salad (Karpouzi Me Feta)

Serves 4-6

½ Watermelon ~ preferably seedless and sweet variety

150 g Greek Feta (preferably authentic Greek Feta)

For the salad dressing:

Generous amount quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil (I used 60 ml)

Freshly Grounded Black Pepper to taste

Rice Vinegar to taste (optional ~ I used about about 10-20 ml)

Fleur De Sel to taste

Some Fresh Basil ~ chiffonade

Method:

1. In a small bowl, mix together the extra virgin oil, grounded black pepper, fleur de sel and rice vinegar until combined. Set aside.

2. Remove the rind of watermelon and cut into bite sizes. You can cubed or use a melon baller if you like them in rounds. Pour in the dressing and mix gently with the watermelon chunks. Chill them in a salad bowl until needed.

3. Before serving, crumble the feta cheese around the watermelon chunks.

4. Sprinkle with the 'chiffonade' fresh basil leaves and serve.

Note: You can omit the vinegar if you like. I tried with and without vinegar before and it's only slight difference in tastes. For me, the vinegar is to prevent browning of fruits and to cut down the olive oil. This salad is great with Souvlaki, BBQ meat and sausages... it's refreshing and yummylicious! Another way I like is serving the watermelon with Heart of Palm. It's amazing taste too!

Enjoy!

Fresh Thai Pineapple & Cucumber Salad

I love pineapples (Ananas comosus), a versatile fruit in which it's so sweeeeeeet and very fragrant as well! I like to use them not only in sweet desserts, drinks (what's Piña Colada without Pineapple!) or the local favourite like Pineapple Jam and Pineapple Tarts! It also gives extra tang (or a 'kick') of sweetness in savoury recipes like Pineapple Pajeri, Achar, Crab Curry, Salt Fish with Pineapple Curry, Sambals, Rojaks, Salad... The list is endless with such delicious fruit originated from southern part of Brazil and Paraguay. There are several types of pineapples hybrids that I love, available locally in Malaysia, mainly Moris (Gula Batu/Rock Sugar) Pineapple, Sarawak Pineapple, Honey Pineapple, Joesphine and Gandul Pineapple.

I remembered when I was little, I hate eating pineapples even though it's so delicious in my favourite Salt Fish & Pineapple Curry or Laksa. It's because of the dark brown 'eyes', bracts or spots which ever names it's known, caused my tongue to itch and hurt badly. My mom furiously scared when I ate pineapples with hands... :-D It's because the pineapple juice left blotches of marks on her vinyl flooring when dried... :-P Well, occasionally I still have the stings but I can handle it... with MucoAid :-P

Here's a fresh salad recipe that is very simple to make for a fuss-free hot Summer days gathering with family and friends over the BBQ... with cool and refreshing Piña Colada, of course!

Fresh Thai Pineapple & Cucumber Salad

Serves 2-4

¼ pc Fresh Pineapple ~ peeled, cored and dark brown 'eyes'/bracts removed*

( * I used only ¼ of 1 whole fresh pineapple)

2 nos Japanese Cucumbers (Kyuri) or 1 medium size cucumber

1 nos Red Onion ~ thinly sliced

1 bunch Watercress

1 Red Chilli ~ sliced thinly (optional)

Dressing:

3 Tbl Fresh Lime or Lemon juice

2 Tbl Soy Sauce

1 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Chilli Sauce

2 Tbl Fresh Mint ~ chopped (about 3-4 stalks)

Method:

1. Peel cucumbers and cut into halves lengthwise. With a small teaspoon, scoop out the seeds and cut into 1 cm pieces (you can leave the seeds on if you want, if you're using Japanese Cucumbers/Kyuri). Place it in a bowl.

2. Cut the pineapple also into 1 cm pieces and add to the cucumber.

3. Add in the sliced red onion and watercress. Mix well.

4. For the dressing; in another bowl, mix all ingredients with a whisk.

5. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss thoroughly. Serve in a salad bowl or individual plates. If you want extra spicy and hot, add some more sliced red chilli.

Note: To avoid the salad become watery, add the dressing only when you are about to serve. If you like, add some coarsely pounded toasted peanuts or any nuts of your choice.

Enjoy!

Grilled Vietnamese-Style Chicken With Cucumber & Carrot Vinaigrette

I'd been thinking buying a grill pan for sometime now but the problem I'm facing was there's no Round Grill Pan available at the frequent shops and malls I went to. Most of shapes available were Square and Oval... but my cooking hobs are round! It's quite frustrated for me when I saw the 3 shapes in their brochures and they said straight to my face,"If there's none at the display counter, it means we don't have in this outlet. It's the HQ who dispatched the items to us. We don't keep stock such items." Come on... if you don't have THE item I wanted, please indicated in your brochure which outlets the products were available!

I hate to travel 369 kms to IKEA just to get what I want :'-( When are you coming to my area? Sigh... I had to settle for the oven grill... the ole faithful. Well, I knew few tricks to achieve what I want for this recipe but I'm too lazy... actually too tired from the coughings and sore throat problems I had on and off lately. I had to force myself to swallow the %$@# anti-biotics because I don't want to spread it to my family :-(

Luckily, that didn't deterred me from having a hearty meal :-P Actually, I'm trying to clear my refrigerator as much as possible to give her a thorough clean up and rearrange the compartments. I found an edible Double cream which later on I used for Vanilla Ice cream. There were 1/2 box of Low-fat Coconut Milk, 4 chicken thighs, some Kyuri (Japanese Cucumber) and topped it up with other ingredients, I decided to cook the chicken thighs for lunch.

Grilled Vietnamese-Style Chicken with Cucumber and Carrot Vinaigrette

Serves 2

350g - 500 g Chicken thighs/Chicken breasts - skin-on and deboned

For Marinate (to be blended into smooth paste):

2 cloves Garlic-roughly chopped

2 nos Small Red Onion (Asian Shallots*)

½ Tbl Fresh Ginger

60 ml Fresh Coconut Milk or Low-Fat Coconut Milk

2 Tbl Rice Vinegar/Glutinous Rice Vinegar

2 Tbl Fish Sauce

1 Tbl Soy Sauce

1 Tbl Brown Sugar

Cucumber & Carrot Vinaigrette Mix:

2 nos Japanese Cucumbers (Kyuri)

1 nos Carrrot (medium size)

1 ½ Tbl Rice Vinegar/Glutinous Rice vinegar

2 Tbl Peanut Oil or any oil that's light in flavour

1 Tbl Brown Sugar

1 tsp Salt

Method:

1. Wash and pat dry the chicken thoroughly. Place chicken in a ceramic bowl or any non-reactive containers, large enough for the chicken to marinate. Add in the marinade paste, stir to coat evenly and cover (since I used chicken thighs, I made some incisions to let the marinate permeates deeper). Let it sit for at least 15 - 20 minutes at room temperature or at least 3-5 hours for the best flavors in the refrigerator. I left it overnight until needed to have deeper and rich flavor.

2. For the vegetable vinaigrette; Peel the cucumbers and carrot into thin, long strips. In a bowl, whisk the rice vinegar, sugar, salt and oil. Add the peeled vegetables, toss to mix and refrigerate until serving. (I prefer to make salad closer to the end of cooking time to avoid the vegetables become watery and limp).

3. Set the grill in the oven to 220ºC (with 2 upper heaters on or the equivalent in the model you have but you can use grill pan, gas grill, charcoal grill or non-stick electric grill). Lightly oil the rack. Remove chicken from the marinate, shake of the excess. Place the chicken, skin side up (or down if you're using a pan grill) and grill until browned, about 7-8 minutes. Turn and grill the other side until browned for 5-7 minutes. Move the chicken away from the direct heat (turn off the upper heaters but maintain the temperature and place it in the middle rack in the oven). Continue to cook the chicken thoroughly for about 7-10 minutes or until the meat turned opaque.

4. Serve the grilled chicken with the cucumber vinagrette and rice.

Note: The above cooking times were based on the size of chicken cuts I bought. Depends on the size of chicken cuts, cooking time may varied. Please adjust accordingly to your grill also. If you're using pan grill, the browning is faster because of the direct contact with the pan. Make sure it's on medium heat and cook the chicken cuts until done. I'm thinking of getting one of this pan grill for a change-thanks Jamie :-)

*Small Red Onions (aka Asian Shallots): Small reddish purple onions, commonly used in Asian cookery.

These grow in bulbs, like garlic, and are sold in segments that look like large cloves of garlic. They have a concentrated flavour and are easy to slice and grind. You can substitute with your local shallots if you can't find it.

Enjoy!

Wakame With Prawns in Sweet Chilli Dressing

Wakame is a fascinating seaweed yet this plant plays very important role in the daily asian diet especially in Korea and Japan without us noticing the significant role it plays. The nutritious kelp, rich in protein, calcium, iodine, iron, folate and Lignan, an important phytoestrogens that may provide protection against certain cancers. Proponents of both raw food diet (aka 'living food' ) and macrobiotic diets, extol the life-giving and healthful properties of wakame along with other seaweeds. 

I eat a lot of seaweeds besides Wakame but also Hijiki, Konbu, Nori, Aonori, Arame, Dulse, Agar-agar (best known it's usage in jelly preparation besides carrageenan and konyakku (sourced from devil's tongue/konjac tuber.) You can get the dried colourful mixed seaweed salad as ' Kaiso' mix in packets with Japanese Salad sauce included or without. I prefer to make my own salad sauce. Best if you can find Yuzu to make Yuzu salad vinegar - it's so refreshing and delicious! Seaweed is good for health if you have over-active or under-active thyroid - in another word weight problem... :-P Seaweed has high source of Iodine which helps the thyroid gland to function well. This is totally different if you take supplemental Iodine in liquid form compared eating natural food like seaweed, your body absorbs what it needs and discards what it doesn't. Some seaweeds like Agar-agar, Hijiki and Arame were able to remove radioactive and toxic metal waste from our body.

Seaweed is a Umami-rich food. In other word, naturally occuring glutamate... better known as MSG. Foodies with MSG-sensitive please be caution with your intake... You can find more info at Umami Information Center.

Two days ago, I bought some fresh prawns and decided to use them with left over dried wakame for a quick meal. I ate this with plain hot rice and hot tea. Then ate some mooncakes as desserts :-D I know it's not the right time to eat mooncakes but I just can't help myself to taste earlier before the festival. There were so many choices and flavours that I had the hard time to choose... not forgetting the beautiful boxes they came with. Even Häagen Dazs in asian region has their own version of Ice Cream Mooncakes!

Wakame With Prawns in Sweet Chilli Dressing

20 g Wakame or any seaweed of your choice

2-4 nos Fresh Prawns/medium to large prawns of your choice

10 g White Sesame seeds

2 tbl Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 tbl Sweet Chilli Sauce

1 tbl Light Soya Sauce

1 nos Lemon - for juice only

Salt and Sugar to taste (optional)

Some clean water for soaking wakame

Method:

1. Soak dried seaweed in some water for 30 minutes or until doubles it's size. Drain the soaked wakame from the water.

2.Wash, peel and devein prawns; In a small pot, boil enough water to cover the prawns. When water boils, drop in the prawns. Blanch the prawns until it changes to pink or lightly curl up. Remove, drain and set aside. 

Note: You can boil the prawns whole and remove the heads, tails and shells later. I always keep them for homemade stock. Put in a freezer bag and freeze them for later use.

3. In a separate pan, dry-fry (without oil) the white sesame grains until fragrant. Remove and roughly crush the sesame seeds.

4. In a bowl mixed the Sweet Chilli sauce, olive oil, light soya sauce, lemon juice until well combine. Add the crushed sesame. Adjust the taste with salt and sugar. If you like more sourish you can add in extra lemon juice. 

5. In 4 small bowls, divide the wakame into 4 portions. Add a cooked prawn for each bowl. Drizzle the sweet chilli sauce dressing  before serving. Serve cold as salad or appetiser with main meals. Serves 2-4 small portions.

Note: Alternatively, you can mix all together and let it sit in refrigerator 1-2 hours to marinate and then divide into desired portions. Sprinkle some sliced spring onions and toasted sesame seeds.

♫ Enjoy ♪

Jellyfish And Kyuri Salad

It had been long time since my last jellyfish meal :-P Yes, you read it right  j-e-l-l-y-f-i-s-h that floating wobbly, water filled animal with long stinging tentacles that spells out trouble for swimmers and fishermen alike. You can say that's bizarre but it's a delicacy and enjoyed by many people. As for me, I rather eat jellyfish anytime than turtles! 

Ok... I don't know which species of jellyfish I'm eating but I guessed it's edible and not endangered (?) species right? :-D This batch was given to me by my neighbour. I think I got the tentacles part. Almost all the whole jellyfish parts can be eaten as mentioned by foodie blogger Melting Wok.

Jellyfish And Kyuri (Japanese Cucumber) Salad

300 g Jellyfish (already prepared and cleaned by seller :-D)

1 pc Japanese Cucumber (kyuri)

1 stalk Spring Onions

3 tsp Rice Vinegar

3 tbl Sesame Oil

4 tsp Shoyu/Light Soya Sauce

1 tbl  Fish Sauce (Optional)

3 tbl  Sesame Seeds

4 tsp Sugar

Some water to blanch the jellyfish

Method

1. Wash jellyfish in fresh water. Drain and set aside.

2. In a pot, boil some water. When water boiled, pour the jellyfish into the hot boiling water. Blanch the jellyfish in few seconds (you will see that the amount will shrink in size) and quickly plunge it into cold water to stop the cooking. Drain the jellyfish.

3. When jellyfish is cold enough to handle, slice the jellyfish into smaller pieces. Set aside.

4. Wash the japanese cucumber: cut into halves lengthwise and remove the seeds. Slice them thinly. Set aside.

For the dressing

1. In a small pan, roast the sesame seeds without any oil until fragrant and golden yellow. Crush lightly the seeds a bit to release the oil. Set aside.

2. In a small bowl, mix the sugar, fish sauce, vinegar, shoyu until the sugar dissolves. Add in the sesame oil and sesame seeds. Stir the dressing well. Set aside until needed.

To assemble the salad; Mix the jellyfish and the japanese cucumber together. Pour in the dressing and mix well. Adjust the taste to your liking. Garnish with sliced spring onions. If you intend to serve the salad later, don't add the dressing too early or you will end up with watery salad. Few minutes before serving is better because you also want the jellyfish to absorb the dressing...

Variation: You can add on to your sushi or top it up on Donburi meals. You can also add some chopped fresh chillies or chilli flakes to give that extra 'kick' :-)

Jellyfish is one of sea turtles main food and that helps keeping the jellyfish in control but now with the dwindling of sea turtles population these jellyfish is back with vengeance! In countries that were badly hit with the surge of jellyfish population had cost lost of income to the fishermen. Only way to control this situation is to stop eating sea turtles (also their cousins) and their eggs or else we all end up eating jellyfish as food or the other way round!

Enjoy!

Banana-A Multi-Purpose Plant

What is abundant, biodegradable, versatile, economical, cheap (if you're in living in the producing region), multi-purpose usage, important in cultures and beliefs, etc, etc ,etc???

It's Banana - just saying its' name conjures up many finger licking thoughts... Fried, grill, raw, steam, flambé, bake, sauce, chips, curry, salads, you name it... it's possible with this multi-purpose plant, we all love since our childhood years! Banana has fancy names too; Manzano, Baby/Nino Banana, Burro, Plantain, Cavendish (well known in US and as Chiquita in EU countries.) This fruit is so famous that even we, humans are named after it as well. Example: Banana Joe and movies or shows were made about it like Banana in Pyjamas that has kids all over the world going bananas!

I'm going bananas as well with so many species and hybrids of bananas available today... :-D If you're interested to know more infos go to Bananas.org. Believe me, you will go crazy as well! I guessed I just stick to those I knew locally in Malay archipelago (depends on which is the country) like Rastali, Emas, Embun, Lidah Buaya, Raja, Nangka, Tanduk, Berangan, Awak, Nipah, etc,etc etc. ;-)

Besides all that, banana plant has many usage as well... Do you know that Banana plant is NOT a tree but a giant herb in the genus Musa? Due to its tall size and structure, a Banana plant is commonly referred to as Banana tree. Sometimes, a Banana plant bears 2 times the fruit instead of only once. To some cultures this is considered as unique and lucky for the owner of the plant. I guessed it's due to commercial bred bananas that caused such mutation? Most species of bananas we ate today are seedless or have only the vestige of seeds for easy consumption... I ate 'wild' bananas before and the seeds are about 0.50 cm in dark brown/black colour! It's difficult to find such wild fruits now due to heavy development of concrete jungle :-(

 

Banana Leaves are so famous as food wrapper and as 'plate' in Indian cuisine of Banana Leaf Rice... I'm a huge fan of Banana Leaf Rice! The strong, flexible and waterproof leaves are used in many different ways in regions where the tree is common. Another good example is Central American tamales are often steamed in banana leaves and Hawaiian Kalua cooking has the 'imu' (undrground oven) lined with banana leaves. The leaves imparts a wonderful fragrance in the cooked dishes.

My mom used it to ease the movement of her old charcoal iron on our family clothes (our clothes smell sooooooo good, crispy and fresh!) without using any easy-iron on spray :-D You can do it with our modern day iron too. If you're using a steam iron, turn off the steam; glide your hot iron across the banana leaves (it will sizzles) and strike across your clothes. 

Here are some pictures of the Banana Blossom/Banana Heart. I peeled off some petals apart to show the little florets...

Anyway, that aside... in this entry I want to share a recipe using the Banana blossom/Banana Heart as salad for side dish. It's simple but what's taking the time is the peeling of each of the florets, remove the hard stamens and boiling/steaming part... But the end results, definitely worth it!

Banana Blossom Salad

1 Whole Banana Blossom

To be chopped finely:

1 cup Fully packed Thai Basil

1 cup Fully packed Mint

1 cup Fully packed Coriander leaves

2-3 nos Limes - for juice only (or more if you like sourness)

4 nos Fresh Red Chillies (or 1-2 Tablespoons of Sambal/Chilli paste)

15 nos Shallots or Small Red Onions-slice thinly

50 g Bean Sprouts - blanched

50 g Roasted Pine Nuts/ Peanuts - roughly crushed (I prefer to use Pine Nuts)

Fish Sauce to taste

Sugar to taste

Method:

1. Prepare a deep bowl of water; you may add some lemon/lime juice or salt for soaking the banana blossom to avoid discolouration. Meanwhile, boil some water in a deep pot just enough to cover the banana florets and the 'heart'.

2. Peel off the hard outer layers of the banana blossom but reserve the florets until you reach the 'white' part of the blossom. You can keep the petals as serving bowls or 'boats'. For the florets, remove any hard stamens from inside the centre of each florets. Towards the end of that task, I normally didn't remove the softer stamens; it's soft enough to chew... :-P 

Soak all the florets and 'white' part of blossoms in the water.

Note: Some people would throw away the florets. I don't know why but I used them (not wanting to waste the precious plant.) It's edible as well.

3. In the boiled hot water, put in the 'heart' and florets. Boil them until just soft but still maintain the crunchy texture (that's my preference but you can cook them until fully soft.) That would take 20 - 30 minutes or more depends the size of the 'heart' of banana. The little florets are faster to soften. Normally, I would remove the florets first, soak them in cold tap water to stop the cooking process then continue cooking the 'heart'.

You can use pressure cooker to cook them. Follow the manufacturer's instructions and cook them for 15-20 minutes depends on the quantity and hardness of the banana 'heart'.

4. In another small pot; blanch the beansprouts quickly in hot boiling water for few seconds; Remove and cool it in cold water to stop further the cooking process. Set aside.

5. When the florets and 'heart' are cooked, slice them thinly or roughly chop to bite-size if you like. 

6. Now, comes the easy part; In a separate/mixing bowl, mix nicely all the herbs, blanched beansprouts, chopped nuts, sliced chillies or paste, lime juice, sugar and fish sauce to taste. If you are using the reserved larger petals of the banana blossom for serving; spoon the salad mixture into individual petals, decorate and serve in plate or on a large banana leaf (you can cut into shapes you like or cut into several rectangle pieces according to how many guests you're serving.) You can serve in a bowl (like in the picture below) to accompany your other main dishes... 

.: Enjoy :.

Delicious Mango Salad... My Way

Once my class was given a question by our English teacher. In the midst of her teachings she asked us, to correct this - " There are man goes (man-goes) on the tree". It's her way to jolt us from our 'dreamland' or she must had noticed someone or some of us nearly dozed off...:-D Her class is not boring at all, really... but after good lunch and windy fan spinning above our heads, the time for siesta in us sets in... :-D

Mentioned the word m-a-n-g-o would make anyone swooned and salivating! Everyone will have their favourites... I love Black Gold, Chukanan, Waterlily to name a few. The mango fruit can be use in several ways; as desserts like well known Thailand's  Khao Neow Mamuang (Sticky Rice with Mango), use unripe in savoury salad or as pickle sold by road side vendors, dipped in sour plum powder in Southeast Asian countries. Trust me, it's so...soooo (drooling) deliciously fresh and when you dip the crunchy slices into the sour plum powder... mmmm.... then put into mouth ... crunch... mmm....mmm... IT's better than chomping chips & crackers minus the calories!

My Way Mango Salad

Serves 2-4

2 nos Half Ripe Mangoes 

1 cup Basil Leaves- firmly packed and roughly chopped (Any basil will do. In this recipe I used Thai Sweet basil from my pot.)

2-3 Fresh Red Chillies

4-8 Small Red Shallots-remove skin and slice thinly

1/4 cup of Thai Fish Sauce (Nam Pla) or more to your taste

2 nos Limes- juice only

Lime zests (optional)

Raw Cane Sugar to taste (you can use white sugar too)

Method:

1. Remove the skin of mangoes. Slice the mangoes about 0.50 cm thin slices along the fruit until your knife touches the seed. Do the same for the other side of the mango. (Reserve the seed to eat what's left later :-D). Roughly cut the mangoes into matchstick sizes. 

Note: Any type of half ripe mangoes can be use. Just beware that although Black Gold mangoes (Tong Dum in Thai) has dark green outer skin but inside is actually ripe with sweet orangy succulent flesh. Only way to tell if it's ripe is the yellow tinge at the stem part and to lightly touch/press the fruit to feel if is soft for ripeness.

2. In a bowl: Slice chillies in halves and remove the seeds from chillies if you don't want that hot. Thinly sliced the chillies. You can also roughly chop the chillies without removing the seeds but then you will end up eating seeds as well.

3. Add in the fish sauce, basil leaves, chilli and some sugar. Mix well and taste if you need to add in more sugar or fish sauce...

4. Pour in Lime juice little bit at first. Taste accordingly to your preference ( I used all 2 Limes plus the zest as well.) Add in more if you like more sourness. Add in the cut mangoes and stir well until well coated with the sauce.

Serve as side dish to rice, grill meat, seafood... even as toppings for steam fish to give it extra zing!

Note: You can prepare the sauce and the fruits in advance but don't mix them too early because mangoes will wilt and losing it's crunchiness. You will end up with soggy salad instead. 

You can also add in fried dried shrimp into this salad but I didn't use it because some people dislike dried shrimps and said it made the salad kinda oily & cloudy