Tomato and crunchy peanut salad recipe

By Prudence Wade. Published 2020-11-18

No sad salads here.

This Rangoon Sisters salad has all of the key tenets of Burmese cooking: spice, shrimpiness, garlic, onion and a nice bit of crunch.“With Burmese cuisine, it’s all about condiments and mixture of textures,” says Emily Chung – one half of the sibling duo – and this tomato and peanut salad recipe will give you all of this, particularly as you make your own garlic oil to go with it.Tomato and crunchy peanut salad

Ingredients:

(Serves 4 as a side)50g unsalted roasted peanuts300g tomatoes, at room temperature, quartered1/2 green finger chilli, deseeded (optional) and finely sliced1tbsp dried shrimps (optional)1–2 raw shallots, peeled and thinly sliced3–5tbsp garlic oil (see instructions below)Juice of 1/2 lime2tsp fish sauce (omit to make vegetarian, then season with salt)Small handful of coriander leaves1tsp gram flour, sifted and evenly toasted in a dry frying panCrispy fried shallots, to garnishFor the garlic oil:3 bulbs of garlic, peeled400ml oil (vegetable, sunflower or peanut)1tsp turmeric powder

Method:

For the garlic oil, separate the garlic cloves and slice them as thinly and evenly as you can. Make yourself comfortable, maybe sit yourself in front of some mindless television, as it will take time. It can also make your fingers feel a bit burny, so you might want to put on disposable gloves for this. Line a plate with a few sheets of kitchen paper. Heat the oil in a deep, medium saucepan or wok set over a medium-high heat. Do not leave the pan unattended. Have a heatproof strainer or sieve ready for fishing out the garlic pieces. Test the readiness of the oil by placing a piece of garlic in it; if it sizzles and comes to the surface within a few seconds, the oil is ready and you can add all the garlic at once, turning the heat down to low.

Keep a close eye on the garlic, turning the pieces regularly in the oil, being careful not to splash hot oil on yourself. Turn the heat down if the garlic is colouring quickly – we sometimes remove the pan from the heat completely for a minute or so if it’s doing this. Once the garlic pieces are golden brown and crisp, take the pan off the heat. Scoop out the crispy garlic pieces using a heatproof strainer or sieve and transfer them to the plate with the kitchen paper, to stop them cooking further. It doesn’t matter if a few pieces remain in the oil. Stir the turmeric into the oil and leave to cool. Once cool, pour the garlic oil into a clean, sealable bottle

Crush the peanuts using a pestle and mortar or pulse a few times in a food processor (to the size of the nubs you get in a shop-bought crunchy peanut butter).
Place the tomatoes, chilli, crushed peanuts and remaining ingredients in a large bowl and mix. Ideally, do this with clean hands to fully combine all the ingredients.
Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more fish sauce or chilli if necessary. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the crispy shallots.

The Rangoon Sisters: Recipes From Our Burmese Family Kitchen by Emily and Amy Chung, recipe photography by Martin Poole, is published by Penguin

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