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Crispy Salmon and Sour Fruits Salad with Thai Nahm Yum Dressing

easy recipe, pescatarian, salad, small plateSeb HolmesFarang Londonsalad, salmon, lime, kumquat, sour fruit, sour, peach, sebby holmes, chef recipe, london restaurant, london chef, payst london, payst, mint, betal leaves, starfruit, strawberry, lemongrass, thai shallot, green mango, mandarin, clementine, soy, salmon fillet, cornflour, fried fish, white pepper, sea salt, fish sauce, fish, garlic, nahm yum, nam yum, dressing, Thai dressing, coriander, shallots, crispy salmon, sour fruits salad, pomelo salad, Thai salad, Farang London, Sebby Holmes, pescatarianComment
Crispy Salmon and Sour Fruits Salad with Thai Nahm Yum Dressing

This salad changes depending on the time of year. At Farang we're lucky - we have British and Thai produce to draw from, which gives us a lot to play with across the seasons. The fruit in this dish is whatever is sweet, sour and good at the time. Pomelo, green mango, kumquat, starfruit, strawberry, peach, mandarin - any combination works as long as the balance is there. If you want to keep it simple, just use pomelo. It's one of the largest citrus fruits on the planet so you get a good yield from each one, and a salad built around pomelo alone is genuinely excellent.

The salmon technique is worth understanding. Dipping the fish in soy sauce before coating it in cornflour does two things - it seasons the flesh instantly and the moisture on the surface gives the cornflour something to grip onto, which means a better, crispier crust when it hits the oil. The longer you leave it in the soy, the deeper the seasoning goes, and eventually it starts to cure the fish slightly. Ten minutes is enough here. I've made the same dish with trout and seabass and both work well - use whatever looks best at the fishmonger.

Betel leaves are listed in the ingredients and worth seeking out if you can find them. They're herbaceous and fragrant with a flavour that works well in salads and curries. At Farang we use the best-looking ones for our miang dish and the rest end up in salads like this - a good use of leaves that are flavourful but not quite perfect in shape. That said, they're not easy to get hold of in the UK and the salad is absolutely fine without them. Don't move mountains.

Crispy Salmon and Sour Fruits Salad with Thai Nahm Yum Dressing

Serves: 2 Prep: 20 minutes plus 10 minutes marinating Cook: 10 minutes Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

For the crispy salmon

  • 2 salmon fillets, roughly 400g total, cut into 2cm chunks

  • 100ml soy sauce, for marinating

  • 300g cornflour

  • 1 pinch white pepper

  • 1 pinch sea salt

  • Vegetable oil for deep frying

For the salad - use a selection of what's good

  • 80g pomelo, peeled and pith removed

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

  • 1 mandarin or clementine, peeled and segmented

  • A few kumquats, sliced (optional)

  • A few strawberries, quartered (optional)

  • Half a peach, chopped (optional)

  • A few slices of starfruit (optional)

  • 1 stick lemongrass, outer sheath removed, finely sliced

  • 5 Thai shallots, peeled and thinly sliced

  • 20g picked mint leaves

  • 20g picked coriander

  • Betel leaves, washed and torn (optional - leave out if unavailable)

For the nahm yum dressing

  • 5 large red chillies, deseeded and thinly sliced

  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled

  • 1 coriander root, cleaned

  • 2 limes, juiced

  • 2 mandarins or oranges, juiced

  • Half tbsp fish sauce

  • 3 pinches caster sugar

  • Small pinch salt

To finish

  • Crispy shallots

  • Crispy garlic

  • Julienned makrut lime leaves

Method

  1. Place the salmon chunks in a bowl with the soy sauce and leave for 10 minutes. The soy seasons the fish and the moisture helps the cornflour stick. Drain and discard the soy.

  2. Mix the cornflour with white pepper and salt in a shallow bowl. Toss the salmon pieces through until well coated.

  3. For the dressing, pound the chillies, garlic and coriander root in a pestle and mortar with a small pinch of salt until you have a rough paste. Add the sugar and continue to pound. Add the lime juice, mandarin juice and fish sauce and stir well. Taste and adjust - it should be sour, salty, spicy and lightly sweet.

  4. Heat vegetable oil in a wok to 180°C. Fry the salmon in batches for 1-2 minutes until golden and crispy on the outside. Drain on a parchment-lined tray.

  5. In a large bowl, gently toss the salad ingredients with enough dressing to coat everything well. Add the crispy salmon and toss once more carefully so the fish doesn't break up.

  6. Transfer to a serving plate and finish with crispy shallots, crispy garlic and julienned makrut lime leaves. Serve straight away.

Chef's notes

The salad waits for nobody. Once dressed it starts to wilt and the salmon loses its crispiness, so get everything ready before you start cooking and serve immediately.

Any white fish works here in place of salmon. Trout is particularly good. Use whatever looks best on the day.

If pomelo is the only fruit you can find, use a lot of it. You'll get good yield from one fruit and it's more than enough to carry the dish.

More recipes at faranglondon.co.uk. Sauces and pastes for cooking Thai at home at payst.co.uk.

Head chef & founder of Farang London restaurant. Cookbook author of ‘Cook Thai’ & ‘Thai in 7’. Chief curry paste basher and co-founder of Payst London.