©2009 Ashy's vegetarian recipes©2009 Ashy's vegetarian recipesThis is a ripper. If you like fiery, mind-blowing chilli dishes, you'll like this recipe. You can, of course, make it milder by putting less chillies in or by using chillies which aren't so hot. But, what would be the point in doing that?
In krabi City there's a night market on the riverside. It's popular with locals as well as tourists, but there are more stalls and a bigger choice of food in the tourist season. A lot of Thai tourists go to Krabbi, too. It's not just foreigners. It's a very popular place and the night market is a favourite place for holiday-makers to eat and is well-known for its wide choice of simply cooked traditional Thai dishes. There's a lot of meat around, of course, but, like everywhere, if you search around, you'll find good vegetarian food too...
There's one little stall which eventually became my favourite because the family who worked on it were quite receptive to the idea of cooking vegetarian dishes and would understand requests to leave out the fish sauce and dried shrimps. I tried a few different dishes but my regular favourite dinner became a plate of pad thai and a spicy salad, washed down with a large bottle of Beer Chang... delicious.
I've been to Krabi several times over the years and each time the family has been there, working at their stall in the night market.
A handful of cashew nuts
1 carrot
A bunch of salad leaves (Chinese cabbage, lettuce, spinach, etc.)
A couple of handfuls of cherry tomatoes
A green pepper
A few baby corn cobs (or a tablespoon of canned corn)
A few
mange tout or sugar-snap peas
A small onion
A few really hot green chillies (the more the merrier)
Salt
2 teaspoons of sugar
Juice of a small lime
It's probably best to start with the dressing for this recipe.... Chop the chillies finely and then crush them well with a pestle and mortar, along with the sugar. When they are well squashed up, add the lime juice and leave the dressing aside while you prepare the other ingredients.
You will have to roast the cashew nuts, if they are not roasted already. This is easily done. Just heat a pan and swirl the whole nuts about in it until they get little golden brown patches all over them. They'll smell lovely while this is happening. When they are done, pour them into a dish and let them cool.
You can chop the other vegetables as you please. Everyone has their favourite way of doing it. I like to shave the carrot into very thin slices and then cut these into wide strips and I usually prepare the onion by slicing it very thinly, not by chopping it. I would cut the baby corn in half down the middle, and maybe into quarters if they were particularly big. You could also slice them diagonally to make pretty shapes. The cherry tomatoes can be left whole or cut in half... But it's up to you. The salad will be fine however you do it.
Add the cashew nuts and a little salt to the chopped vegetables and give them a good stir. Pout the dressing in and stir once more and the salad is ready to serve.