Recipe: Banana Blossom Salad with Chicken
On Thursday I took a cooking class that lasted from 9am-4pm to learn how to cook Khmer dishes, and it was fantastic. There were only six of us students and our teacher took us to the market to tell us all about the different kinds of fruit and herbs. We also learned how the meat is all freshly killed at about 2am that day; anything that isn’t sold the day it’s been killed is turned into sausages. Some of the meat was really fresh. As in, still squirming around on the tray. Like these fish (yes, even a couple that were chopped in half were still moving. Sorry if you’re squeamish):
When we got back to the open-air kitchen on the rooftop, we learned how to make four amazing dishes.
Some of the other students enjoying fried spring rolls with a sweet and sour dipping sauce (my poor health freak eyes were bulging from the sockets at all the oil these spring rolls were fried in. But they were tasty!).
Fish amok in a banana leaf cup
Sticky rice with mango slices and caramel sauce
We also made banana flower salad with chicken (more of that below). It was all so delicious! Most of it was fairly easy to make, and I think that if you hunt around a little bit it shouldn’t be too difficult to find most of the ingredients no matter where you live. Or you can be creative and come up with local substitutions!
We also received a recipe booklet at the end of the day. I’ll share more recipes with you as the month goes on, but this was my favorite dish that we made: the banana blossom salad.
Banana Blossom Salad with Chicken or Tofu (Serves 2)
Ingredients
1 banana flower
2 tbsp of mixed herbs (mint, basil, fishwort, Asian coriander)
150 g chicken breast, cut into pieces
1 chili pepper, julienne
juice of 1 lime
Dressing:
1 chili pepper
1 bird chili
juice of 2 limes
3 cloves of garlic
2 shallots
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp palm sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup water
Method
1. Poach the chicken breast and set aside to cool off. Remove the leaves of the fresh herbs from the stems.
2. For this salad you can only use the young (inner) parts of the banana flower, so first take off the pink-purple outer layers. Cut the young flower leaves into thin slices. To prevent them from browning, immediately rinse the slices in diluted lime juice for 5 minutes, then take out and set aside.
3. For the dressing, cut chili pepper, bird chili and garlic, put them in a mortar and grind a little (NOT to a paste!). Put the ground peppers and garlic in the water and add shallots, fish sauce, lime juice, salt, and palm sugar to taste. Mix well.
4. Take the chicken and shred it into very small pieces. Put the banana flower leaves in a bowl, together with the chicken, mixed herbs, chili, and the dressing. Mix well and enjoy!
A note about this dish…
Make sure that your herbs are fresh! Dried herbs won’t do. I’m not sure how easy it is to find banana flowers, but you could easily use something like zucchini sliced into thin strips. This is a salad that you could probably add all kinds of vegetables to in very thin strips and it would still be delicious. One of the other students was vegetarian so he used tofu (and left out the fish sauce and shrimp paste, adding more salt to compensate) and he said that it was great that way as well, so it’s vegetarian-friendly! What’s not to like?
And it’s so pretty, too!
Sounds like a great recipe.
Great pics!! I love exotic foods! Sounds like you’re having a good time! Thanks for sharing with us!
My sister-in-law lives and works in Taiwan and when she goes on holiday she travels to other destinations in the Far East, where she learns to cook the local cuisine. I’ve always thought that was such a cool thing to do! So I’m very impressed that you’re doing the same thing…
Oh wow, that looks like a blast!!!! I want to take a cooking class! 😛
what a lovely way to get to know a country and its culture. The trip to the market must have been fascinating, and the idea of an open-air rooftop class is fantastic! I bet the people walking down the street below wondered what all those lovely aromas were.
Might give it a go some time, especially if you can tell me what bird chili is???
What a great experience Sagan! I’m so glad you had it! Going to the markets with a local and then making traditional food must have been incredibly exciting, thanks for sharing the recipes with us 🙂
I’ve never seen a banana flower in Canada… not in the conventional grocery stores anyway… maybe in ethnic stores or markets, I’m sure we can find them somewhere!
Awesome recipe. I’m starring it. I’ve always wanted to make sticky rice as well.
With mouth watering as I type, I have to say that sticky rice and mango dish looks tasty. Not too keen on the wiggly chopped-in-half-still-alive-fish.
peace,
mike
livelfe365
still jealous over here in the Peg!
You are really have an adventure of a life time. That recipe looks amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your pics and story..now I am with Rebecca I am jealous 🙂
Liz- I’m not too sure what bird chili is, to be honest. I’ll have to do some research to see if it goes by a different name!
Maggie- sticky rice is super easy to make! I’ll share the recipe later on for sure.
Mike- I passed on the wiggly fish too 😉
I love the photos! The food presentation is done so artistically.
Oh boy! I can’t wait for you to cook for me when I arrive in a week. Rebecca, you may be jealous, but at least you have Sagan’s theatre ticket for tomorrow night 😉
Yummy! I love Vietnamese food, my favorite. I buy a sack of those chilis once a year, make a hot sauce. It’s painfully hot. I’m glad you’re having fun, I can’t believe you have time to blog, let alone read other blogs and comment! I’m so jealous
that sounds awesome, and what a fun experience 🙂