Crispy Salmon Salad with Sour Fruits, Tempura Watercress & Chilli & Lime Nahm Yum Dressing

Nahm yum and nahm jim are two things most people use interchangeably, including plenty of Thai restaurants, so it's worth knowing the difference. Nahm jim (น้ำจิ้ม) is a dipping sauce, something that sits at the side of a plate. Nahm yum (น้ำยำ) is a dressing, built to go through a yam, a Thai dressed salad. The ingredients are almost identical, chilli, citrus, fish sauce, a little sugar, but the intention and balance are different. A nahm jim is sharper and more intense because it's used by the dip. A nahm yum is balanced to coat and dress everything it touches. This one goes through the salad.

This is a Farang dish and one of our most requested. The sour fruit combination is what makes it work. Pomelo for its dry, slightly bitter flesh and the way it pulls apart into proper pieces rather than collapsing. Green mango for raw acidity and crunch. Mandarin for sweetness. All three together against the richness of the fried salmon is the point. Any one of them on its own would be fine. Together they do something different.

The herbs and leaves are worth thinking about. Ginger goes through as julienne here, which is accessible and does the job well. If you can get krachai (wild ginger, also called finger root) at a Thai or Asian supermarket, use it instead of the ginger. It's sharper and more floral. The betel leaves, sold as cha plu leaves in Asian grocers or easily found online, are genuinely worth tracking down. They have a peppery, slightly aniseed quality that works beautifully through this kind of salad. If you can't find them, Thai sweet basil is the best substitute.

Tempura batter needs three things to work: cold water (as cold as you can get it), a few lumps left in the mix rather than beating it smooth, and oil that's properly at temperature before anything goes in. Get those three things right and the batter will be light and crisp. Get them wrong and it'll be heavy and greasy. The watercress goes in last, right before serving.

Crispy Salmon Salad with Sour Fruits, Tempura Watercress & Chilli & Lime Nahm Yum Dressing

Serves: 2 | Prep: 20 mins | Cook: 15 mins

Ingredients

For the salad

• 2 salmon fillets (roughly 400g total), skinned, skin reserved, flesh cut into 2cm chunks

• 2 tablespoons fish sauce (for marinating the skin)

• 1 litre rapeseed oil (for frying)

• A large handful of watercress

• 25g mint leaves, picked

• 25g coriander leaves, picked

• 10g betel leaves (cha plu), washed and torn (Thai sweet basil works if you can't find them)

• 100g pomelo, peeled and pith removed, broken into pieces

• 1 green mango, peeled, stone removed, cut into bite-sized pieces

• 1 mandarin (or clementine), peeled and split into segments

• 5 Thai shallots, peeled and thinly sliced

• 20g fresh ginger, peeled and julienned (krachai/wild ginger if you can find it)

For the tempura batter

• 100g plain flour, sifted

• 30g tapioca flour (rice flour or cornflour will do)

• 240ml icy cold water

• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

For the nahm yum dressing

• 5 large red chillies, de-seeded and thinly sliced

• 2 limes, juiced

• 2 mandarins, juiced

• ½ tablespoon fish sauce

• 1 small pinch salt

• 3 pinches caster sugar

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Method

1. Make the dressing first. In a pestle and mortar, pound the chillies with the salt until they break down into a rough paste, the salt acts as an abrasive and helps them along. Add the sugar and pound until combined. Pour in the lime juice, mandarin juice and fish sauce. Stir and taste. It should be sour up front, salty, with heat building underneath and just enough sweetness to hold it together. Adjust with a touch more lime if it needs sharpness, more fish sauce if it needs salt. Set aside. The dressing improves as it sits.

2. Lay the salmon skins flat and soak them in the fish sauce for a few minutes. This seasons them and helps them crisp. Meanwhile, prep all the salad ingredients and have them ready in a large bowl: watercress, mint, coriander, betel leaves, pomelo, green mango, mandarin segments, Thai shallots and ginger.

3. Make the tempura batter. Whisk the cold water and soy sauce together. Add the sifted plain flour and tapioca flour and whisk briefly, leaving a few lumps in the batter. Don't overmix. Keep the batter cold until you need it.

4. Heat the rapeseed oil in a deep wok or heavy pan to 180°C. Lift the salmon skins out of the fish sauce and lower them into the oil. Fry for around 30 seconds until puffed and crisp. Remove with tongs and drain on paper towels.

5. Fry the salmon chunks in batches, dropping them carefully into the hot oil. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes until golden on the outside and just cooked through in the middle. Remove and drain on paper towels. Keep the oil hot.

6. Working quickly, dip the watercress into the cold batter in small handfuls, let the excess drip off, then lower into the hot oil. Fry for 30 seconds to a minute until the batter is set and lightly golden. Drain. This goes in last and needs to be served immediately.

7. Pour most of the dressing over the salad bowl and toss gently to coat everything. Add the salmon chunks and fold through carefully. Taste and add more dressing if needed. Plate in the centre of each bowl. Top with the tempura watercress and the crispy salmon skin. Spoon any remaining dressing around the edge and serve immediately.

Chef's notes

Pomelo is worth buying whole rather than pre-prepared where possible. The flesh varies between dry and slightly bitter to sweet depending on the variety. For this salad, the drier, more bitter type works better, it holds its shape and contrasts the sweetness of the mandarin.

Green mango needs to be unripe, firm and tart. A ripe mango will go soft when dressed and the texture is wrong for this kind of salad. If you can't find green mango at an Asian supermarket, green papaya or finely julienned granny smith apple gets you close enough.

The tempura batter works on other things too. Kale leaves, Thai sweet basil bunches, baby pak choi leaves. The principle is the same: cold batter, hot oil, in and out fast. Don't let the battered greens sit before they go in the oil or the batter will slide off.

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