Fish with Green Papaya Salad

When I was young, salad was never an attractive proposition. In our household it featured a few lettuce leaves and some tomatoes. That was the extent of it, undressed and usually as an accompaniment to cold chicken. I can even remember the first time I tasted cucumber, on sandwiches, in the back room of the hut at Meikelriggs, home of Ferguslie Cricket Club, where we had been invited to sit down to tea with Archie Russell, one of the club patrons and a friend of my Uncle James and my dad. On a hot Saturday afternoon the cucumber tasted so fresh and it had a crunch: this was unusual!

Fortunately salads have moved on with the advent of so much more fresh produce available to consumers in the last thirty years. Yet it can be easy to fall into the lettuce/leaves, peppers, tomatoes and cucumber (Sharon excepted) routine instead of giving salads more thought. I've never been overly keen on strong raw flavours, and generally still baulk at raw onion and garlic, but when your taste buds are jaded then something like a Thai salad is just the job to enliven them.

Papaya is now available in greengrocers and supermarkets although I'm not sure how you can tell if the flesh is going to be ripe and orange or unripe and green when you open it, other than by pressing the papaya and hoping for the best. If you can't get green papaya then use a Granny Smith's apple, as its tartness is equally fresh. The dressing for this salad is lively! If you are scared off by the quantities, just cut down on the garlic and Tabasco and cayenne pepper, but be prepared to accept that the robust flavours are what makes this salad special.

I first came across this recipe for Mahi-Mahi with Green Papaya Salad in November when searching for something to do with papaya. As luck would have it, I had also bought Jerusalem artichokes and basil leaves and beansprouts too, so I tried this salad with another white fish, mahi-mahi generally being in short supply here in Scotland. It was a real winter warmer! Jerusalem artichokes are like knobbly potatoes and make wonderful creamy soups but I was surprised by their fresh crunchy texture when raw. Nothing like spuds!

Note: a mandoline makes the fine slicing and julienning so much easier, unless you're a wizard with a sharp knife. Also, the Pampered Chef serrated peeler is very useful for peeling the papaya with little waste.

To marinate the fish (tuna or swordfish steaks or a firm white fish):
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
2 tbsp green Thai curry paste
1 lb (450g) pound fish fillets
To make the dressing:
4-6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbsps fish sauce
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp pure maple syrup
1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce
To make the salad:
1 medium green papaya, peeled, julienned (or 1 Granny Smith apple)
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
3/4 cup fresh bean sprouts
about 4 Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and julienned, or water chestnuts
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
1 tbsp groundnut oil
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
To finish:
Toasted pumpkin seeds or finely chopped peanuts

1. Preheat a grill or griddle pan.


2. Stir together the lemon juice and the curry paste. Add the fish and set aside.


3. Whisk together the dressing ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside.


4. Mix the papaya, onion, sprouts, artichokes, basil, groundnut oil, and cayenne in a large bowl. Set aside.


5. Remove fish from the marinade and transfer to the grill. Grill for 4 minutes; turn and grill 4 minutes longer, or until the fish is thoroughly cooked. Transfer to a cutting board and slice into thin strips.


6. Combine the fish with the salad and toss lightly. Drizzle the dressing over the top and sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds or nuts. Divide into four bowls and serve immediately.

Cost: 6/10
Preparation time: 6/10 (can be a bit fiddly getting everything chopped up)
Ease of cooking: 10/10 (none!)
Taste: 9/10

Thai Fish Cakes

Seeing as Sharon trailed this recipe I may as well put it up. I can remember the first time I saw Rick Stein make these on TV and saying he reckoned they would become one of his most popular recipes. I immediately tracked down the recipe!

Tod nam pla as these small, moreish fish cakes are known, are often absent from the menus of Thai restaurants or, more frustratingly, written down but scored out or not available! I think they're just keeping them to themselves. I have no idea how authentic Rick's recipe is, but it's an easy one to put together provided you have a food processor and a sharp knife or mandoline.

We're fortunate here in Edinburgh to have a number of good Asian stores, the biggest and best being Pat's Chinese supermarket down Leith Walk. It's far better value buying a big tub of Mae Ploy red curry paste; a large bottle of Squid brand fish sauce; cylinders of the hard palm sugar that you need to saw through: all these are things which hang around our fridge and cupboards just waiting to be used. I may do an entry on what we have in our cupboards because it means you're only ever a couple of fresh ingredients away from cooking up something tasty.

The recipe is here so I don't need to write it down. Coley is a flaky fish, not unlike cod or haddock. Coley is a rare enough find (we recently got some from Caledonian Connisseurs, sourced from Kerachers of Perth) so use cod if you restrict your shopping to supermarkets. I tried replacing the green beans with asparagus but it didn't taste quite as nice. The dipping sauce makes the dish, the sweetness and crunch of the vegetables balancing the slightly spongy texture of the fish cakes.

While we normally serve these as a starter, usually with a token salad (every mouthful of salad being just a filler until the next mouthful of fish cake) they could make a main course or splendid summer lunch with something like the robust green papaya salad that I recently discovered.

Cost: 7/10
Preparation time: 5/10 (one for the weekend)
Ease of cooking: 9/10
Taste: 9/10

Whats for tea, Muuuuuuhm?

The usual war cry from Finn! Sitting here thinking about what to cook the boys for lunch today when I get them home. With Ian's coeliac disease and Sean's ongoing problems, I think I am more aware of the amount of wheat in the boys diet, cereals, sandwiches, rolls, pasta, etc. So I am trying to avoid sandwiches (again) for lunch.

More importantly, I am very excited about dinner tonight! Ian is making thai fish cakes for tea and this is one of his best ever recipes, so am really really really looking forward to it!!

What would you like for dinner?

"Something tasty!" is the glib answer in our household.

Does the world need another food blog? Probably not. This is really an extension of our family site, TartanShamrock, and an attempt to digitise the little black book that indexes and contains recipes we've tried and tested over the last few years.

Increasingly I am finding the Internet is a more convenient source for locating new and interesting recipes rather than standing on the chair in our kitchen to select a cookbook or tatty article from the library arrayed along the top of the wall units. While enjoying the hours spent atop that chair, perusing old favourites and fruitlessly searching for new recipes that may combine that day's Ready Steady Cook selection of ingredients, I recognise the benefits of using technology to assist in compiling the weekly menu. It's less dangerous for a start.

So, are there any governing principles to this food blog? No, not really. It's not exclusively about Scottish and Irish food because we aren't particularly traditional in that regard. I must get Sharon to write down her Irish Stew recipe, however. If we can find any ingredients locally, we'll try them. This blog will likely reference all manner of world cuisines without claiming to be an authority on any of them. If we cook something, possibly amending it to suit our locale or capability or taste, then the main requirement is that it is something tasty.

There are some constraints imposed upon us. Restricted diet is one. Location is another. I can't eat gluten so I'm principally interested in gluten-free recipes or recipes that can be adapted to use gluten-free products. Increasingly we favour locally sourced ingredients over air-freighted organic ingredients. This can be a challenge in Scotland, which frequently exports some of its best produce. We also believe in cheaper cuts of meat, slow-cooked, and seafood that hasn't been fished to the point of extinction.

The other constraint is that we have three young children and we believe in trying to sit down to eat the same meal as a family. Many of the recipes likely to feature in this blog will be for the nights when Mum and Dad eat after the boys are in bed, but we will also report on successes with our junior taste testers.