Howard 4 October 2008 Vietnamese, cookshowandtell 3 Comments  Print This Post  Email This Post

Believe it or not, sometimes I do get sick of eating out every week. Though, contrary to popular belief I don’t even eat out that often and when I do it’s almost purely on a Friday night or Sunday brunch. In fact, I do my fair share of cooking and I thought it was about time I shared some of my efforts with the eatshowandtell faithful. However to set a precedence, I’m not a Wolfgang Puck or a Donna Hay. I’m just a bloke who loves to eat, isn’t afraid to experiment and also happens to have a camera which probably makes the food look better than it tastes.

In Sydney we perhaps had the coldest winter I could remember. Never has winter dragged on so long into the year. Lately though, the weather has started to warm up which inspired me into re-introducing two of my favourite summer foods : Salads and grilled meat. For this post, I’ll go through how easy it is to create a healthy and tasty summer salad which can act as a side dish or even a main. A couple days ago I shared with you my basic take on crispy skin pork with crackling goodness, so I hope this recipe is just as popular for the Vege inclined.

There are many versions of paw paw salad. The Vietnamese, Thai and Lao styles all have minor differences in ingredients and aesthetics, yet the taste can differ dramatically with the introduction or exclusion of just one ingredient.

Vietnamese Paw Paw Salad

Vietnamese Paw Paw Salad

The Sauce

• 2 red chillis , thinly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic , crushed
• fish sauce to taste, this can be 1 tablespoon or more depending on your taste
• 2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon water (this is optional but advisable)

• Paw Paw , peeled into thin strips
• Carrots , peeled
• Mint
• Thai basil
• Prawns , cooked and peeled

Paw Paw and prawns

1. This is quite simple, just combine all the above ingredients in a giant bowl. The larger the better.
2. Add in the fish sauce evenly while mixing the salad