How to make simple dried fish salad with durian
If you come to the West, you should not miss the salad dishes in this land of rivers, most especially the delicious salad of dried neem and gourami fish.
Dried fish and neem salad is a typical salad of Westerners. The combination of the bitter taste of neem leaves, the sweet and sour taste of tamarind fish sauce combined with the fragrant aroma of dried gourami fish creates a simple dish that no diner can resist.
The main ingredients of this dish are young neem leaves and dried fish. There are also additional spices, garlic, chili, green mango, pork belly, pineapple, tamarind sauce…
Preparation: Soak the dried gourami fish in diluted salt water for a few minutes, then take it out and let it drain. Next, dry the gourami fish and grill it (or fry it until golden brown), then remove the fish bones and tear them by hand (or cut them with scissors).
Pick the leaves of neem neem, wash them, and drain them. You can soak neem leaves in ice water to reduce the bitterness of the leaves and keep them fresh. However, those who like to eat more bitter food can skip this step of blanching the leaves.
Wash the pork belly, boil it and then slice it thinly. Depending on your taste, you can add this meat to the salad or not.
As for the vegetables, wash the cucumber and pineapple and cut them into thin slices, and wash the green mango and cut them into strips.
Next, wash the chili, cilantro, and chop the garlic and chili ingredients.
How to make tamarind sauce: Add a little ripe tamarind to 1/2 bowl of warm water to dissolve it evenly. Then add a little sugar, fish sauce, garlic and chopped fresh chili and stir well. Depending on the number of people eating, adjust the ratio of spices accordingly.
Take part of this mixture to make salad dressing, and bring the rest to a boil until it thickens a bit. Stir well while boiling the sauce to dissolve the sugar and create a fragrant aroma.
Mix the salad: After completing the steps, put the fish, neem leaves, cucumber, pineapple, mango, pre-processed pork belly and the salad dressing into a large bowl and mix well.
Then, put the salad on a plate, add coriander and coriander on top and enjoy.
Note: Do not add too much fish sauce when mixing the salad because this will cause the vegetables to soften quickly and lose their freshness. You can replace dried gourami fish with dried snakehead fish or pineapple fish, depending on your preference.
Neem is a woody tree, 10 to 15 meters tall, green leaves, growing alternately, white flowers, fragrant. Neem trees are now grown a lot in some Western provinces, especially An Giang.
The neem tree contains many medicinal herbs such as helping to clear urine, clear heat, promote good sleep, joint pain, high blood pressure, and even dermatological diseases.
