Thai Cuisine

Banana flower salad

Cuisine: Thai Created by Khamtane Signavong

This is a wonderful Thai dish which combines the deliciously rich and creamy texture of the banana flower with crunchy cashew nuts, the heat of roasted chilli and all the other ingredients. Banana flowers are the buds of the banana plant, which are soaked and shredded for use in salads. They are also available preserved from Asian grocery shops - soak in cold water for 10 minutes and rinse before use.

Ingredients

1 litre (4 cups) cold water
100g skinless, boneless chicken breast, sliced
100g raw king prawns, shelled and deveined
1 banana flower (about 200g)
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
50g dried shrimps, finely chopped
1 tbsp sliced shallots
2 tbsp roasted cashew nuts, crushed
8 crispy-fried chillies
1 shallot, sliced and fried
Handful of coriander leaves
3 pieces of banana flower, to garnish (Asian grocery)

Dressing
2 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tbsp palm sugar
1 tbsp roasted chilli paste
2 tsp dried, roasted chilli powder
3 tbsp coconut milk

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Preparation

Bring 500ml of the water to the boil in a saucepan. Add chicken pieces, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Add the prawns and continue simmering for 3 minutes, until cooked. Remove chicken and prawns and set aside. Discard water.

Remove all the hard outer leaves from the banana flower, then thinly slice the white inside part diagonally. Mix the lime juice with remaining cold water and soak the banana flower slices for 5 minutes to prevent discoloration.

To make the dressing; combine fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, chilli paste, chilli powder and coconut milk. Mix them together well until the palm sugar has completely dissolved. Gently squeeze water from the banana flower and combine with the dressing, chicken and prawns, dried shrimp, sliced shallots and cashew nuts. Mix well.

Serve sprinkled with the crispy-fried chillies and fried shallots and garnish with coriander leaves and banana flower pieces.

Thai Restaurants

Displaying 10 of 823 Thai Restaurants.

Restaurant		Suburb
1.	Bank's Thai Restaurant	Enmore
2.	Pavilion Hotel	Sydney
3.	Asian Gateway	Nightcliff
4.	Ayutthaya	Belconnen
5.	Dickson Asian Noodle House	Dickson
6.	Lemon Grass Thai City	City
7.	Sukothai	Yarralumla
8.	Thai Amarin	Kingston
9.	Thai Garden	Dickson
10.	Three Mothers Thai	City

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