Cool and Easy

The entire month of July is “Reno is Artown”: a month- long celebration of the arts. Today was visual arts day, and we have been on the road since 8:00 a.m. visiting at least seven of the venues. Most were in private gardens in old southwest Reno and featured painting, pottery, jewelry, glass, fiber arts, welded steel sculptures and various other fabulous stuff! It was fascinating to meet the artists and see their creative repurposing of vintage items.

 

It is now 4:30 p.m. and after a day like today, all we could think about was something easy to fix and cool to eat. This recipe has several exotic sounding ingredients - including green mango, dried shrimp and fish sauce.  We found all 3 items at the Manila Hongkong market here in Sparks. Meg is becoming a regular there and always gets assistance locating any elusive ingredient. For you locals, this is where we got the kecap manis, Asian egg noodles, sweet chili sauce, and black sesame seeds used in previous blogs.

Crab Salad with Green Mango and Coconut

 

Crab Salad with Green Mango And Coconut

 

Serves: 4 – 6
Source: “Cool Food”; Laurel Glen Publishing 2002

 

2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 small red chilies
2 T dried shrimp
2 T fish sauce
3 T lime juice
3 t brown sugar
½ c shredded coconut
1 ½ c shredded green mango
½ c mint leaves, (torn if very big)
½ c cilantro
3 kaffir lime leaves, shredded, (lime zest)
2 t thinly shredded, pickled ginger
1 lb fresh crabmeat

banana leaves (optional)
crushed roasted peanuts
lime wedges for garnish

 

Preheat the oven to 350’ F.  Place the garlic, chilies, dried shrimp, and ½ t salt in a mortar and pestle.  Pound to a paste, then whisk in the fish sauce, lime juice, and brown sugar with a fork.

 

Place the shredded coconut on a baking tray and bake for 3 – 5 minutes, shaking the tray occasionally to ensure even toasting.  Watch the coconut closely, as it will burn easily.

 

Place the shredded mango in a large bowl and add the mint, cilantro, kaffir lime leaves, ginger, coconut, and crabmeat.  Pour on the dressing and toss together gently.

 

Place a piece of banana leaf (if using) in each serving bowl.  Mound some crab salad on top, sprinkle with the peanuts, and serve immediately with lime wedges.

**Note: Fresh shredded coconut is delicious, so if you have the time, remove the skin from a coconut and shred using a vegetable peeler.  The banana leaves are for presentation only and are not edible.

Alfresco dining

We loved this salad! Every forkful seemed to highlight a different component. The green mango is crunchy and slightly tart. The mint and cilantro add a burst of freshness. The dressing is complex and rich. Every bite is a party in your mouth. And oh yeah, there is crab, too. 

 

The coconut lime cooler seemed like a perfect match for this salad. We chose it because of the similar ingredients. It was really light and refreshing.  Try to find the Taste Nirvana coconut water with “chunks” of coconut – it is worth the effort.

 

Coconut Lime Cooler

 

Serves: 1

Source: “Raley’s Extra” quarterly; raleys.com

 

Taste Nirvana Coconut Water recommended for this recipe for its nifty floating chunks of coconut.

 

3 oz sparkling water

2 oz Taste Nirvana Coconut Water
1 oz lime juice
1 oz rum
1 t chopped cilantro

Stir all ingredients together and pour over ice in a tall glass.  Garnish with a lime slice.

 

Sue recently tasted the Oikos Toasted Coconut Vanilla Greek yogurt and fell in love at first spoonful. The dessert was pretty much built around using this yogurt. Grilled pineapple and candied ginger were the perfect partners  for the yogurt. There is no recipe. Just grill up some fresh pineapple slices, dollop with yogurt and candied ginger! Be prepared to lick the plate!

 

Grilled pineapple with Toasted Coconut Greek Yogurt and Candied Ginger

Our unsolicited and biased opinions:

Using the mortar and pestle for the dressing prep was not practical. The dried shrimp are very hard and resisted Sue’s every effort to become part of the paste. She quickly said, ”life’s too short”, and got out the mini-processor. Even with mechanical help it never became a paste, which we were fine with, as it added small bits of  color to the salad. Once it was finely chopped, we added the remaining dressing ingredients to the processor.

 

 

We substituted lime zest for the kaffir lime leaves and used flaked unsweetened coconut. Those were our only changes.

This whole meal is a trip to the tropics, sans airfare . . . mission accomplished – cool and easy.