I have to say that if there is one thing that I think has significantly improved my cooking it is the use of fresh herbs. The flavour that they bring to dishes really can't be rivalled. That's not to say that dried herbs don't have their place many a stew has been improved by a sprinkling of dried herbs and in the Cooks Companion Stephanie Alexander calls for dried mint in her Tzatziki over fresh herbs. However when it comes to a great flavoursome salad - it is fresh herbs all the way. Sadly due to my ability to kill most of the herbs that I grown in the garden or in pots this can mean a bit of extra cash but the benefits to the flavour in my opinion are well worth it.
Also important to flavour is the crushing / grinding /pounding of spices and other ingredients - so it was with much excitement on Wednesday that I got to pull out and use my brand new mortar and pestle.
On the menu was something relatively light and simple to be made after sport - from the
Tossed cookbook Crab and green mango salad. The dressing was made from dried shrimp pounded with chilli, garlic and salt mixed with fish sauce and palm sugar - a strong salty counter point to the fresh herbs coriander and mint.
Sticking by my call of how work much cracking crabs is. Used left over legs from Tuesdays dinner. This recipe has a large proportion of my favourite ingredients so I was surprised when I wasn't overly happy with the outcome however that may be more to do with still being thirsty from sport and tired by the time I ate it as much as any other reason. Would be great with a nice sharp Riesling.
This was the first time I had used green mangos in such a recipe and on reflection I think the mangos I used were slightly too ripe - the recipe called for the mangos to be shredded but I didn't feel that was an option with the ripe green mangos I had.
Still it was pretty tasty and would be keen to try it again perhaps with a different type of seafood - something less fiddly perhaps like squid or possibly would be good with some crunch skin on salmon.
On the menu was something relatively light and simple to be made after sport - from the Tossed cookbook Crab and green mango salad. The dressing was made from dried shrimp pounded with chilli, garlic and salt mixed with fish sauce and palm sugar - a strong salty counter point to the fresh herbs coriander and mint.
Still it was pretty tasty and would be keen to try it again perhaps with a different type of seafood - something less fiddly perhaps like squid or possibly would be good with some crunch skin on salmon.
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