Thai Pork Salad

I am sorry to keep you waiting for a long time for this post. We had been travelling for the past few days and I was totally into holiday mood. We just came back from Phuket in Thailand. Now I know why it is rated as one of the best tourist destinations in the world. Phuket boasts of a number of picturesque beaches and each of them is unique. This is one of the best places I have ever visited. The temperature was just right and we enjoyed thoroughly. I came back rejuvenated and de-stressed. Phuket was so relaxing!

Thai food is delectable. I particularly loved the salads there. We had green papaya salad and Thai Beef salad. I recreated the Thai Beef salad here, which tasted just similar to what I had in Marriott Café, Phuket. However, I replaced beef with pork, but the results were equally good. Don’t prefer pork or beef? Try chicken breast or tiger prawns. This salad is sweet-n-sour as well as spicy. It has lemon juice and bird eye chillies as the main ingredients for the dressing. The salad is quite filling and very refreshing: highly recommended!

Phi Phi Island, Phuket

Thai Pork Salad

[This salad is actually made with beef, but pork worked perfectly well here. The real fun is the spicy and lemony flavour, but if you are not comfortable with chillies, avoid crushing them and use them halved.]

Ingredients:

Pork rump: 250 g

Lemon juice: 4 tbsp

Brown sugar: 1 tsp

Bird’s eye chillies (halved): 2

Salt for the dressing: ¼ tsp

Salt for marinating the pork: ½ tsp

Lemongrass paste or powder (optional): ½ tsp

Grated ginger: ½ tsp

Medium-sized tomato (thinly sliced): ¾

Chinese celery leaves: ½ cup

Spring onion greens: chopped roughly into one-inch pieces

Medium-sized purple onion (thinly sliced): ½

Cucumber (deseeded): chopped into thin rectangles

Chopped purple onion: 1 tsp

Finely chopped bird’s eye chilli: ½ tsp 

Method:

Marinate the pork with 1 tbsp lemon juice, ½ tsp salt and lemongrass powder for 1 hour. Grill, till the outside looks crispy and brown and a skewer passes through the meat easily.

Cool the meat and thinly slice the grilled pork. Keep aside.

In a salad bowl, mix the onions, cucumber, tomatoes, spring onion greens and celery leaves with the rest of the lemon juice, salt and brown sugar. Crush the last two ingredients and mix in. Add the chopped, grilled pork now. Serve.

Go on a holiday, enjoy life and eat well. Have a great summer ahead!