March 27, 2006

Ginger green noodle salad

To those of you who are waiting for that cabbage pudding recipe: sorry, but I am tired of wintery food now so you will have to wait... I also have a lot of other things to write about, like it is my birthday today and it is (you wouldn´t guess, would you?) Snowing! Gah. I just waved off my mother who has been visiting all weekend, we have done lots of lovely things and eaten lots of other lovely things. We started out with this salad on Friday night. I have a lot of aunts, and one of them works on trains up north. Well, it is a long story but it finishes with her arranging my uncle going to Stockholm central and somewhere on a platform meeting someone handing him a bag of fresh prawns from Norway which he and his wife, my other aunt, brought to me, together with Mum who they picked up on the way. ("Oh, perhabs you´d better not write about this", my uncle said. "I am not sure it is legal to get prawns from Norway this way?") Well, I take the risk because it is such a good story and the prawns were fantastic. *Waving to the occasional customs spy who might read this*

Long story again. To accompany these possibly illegal prawns I made this salad. I got it on a buffet last weekend and after tasting it made sure I got the recipe! It has it all. It is fresh, it is soooo tasty (if you like ginger), it has a good combination of texture with both crunch and smoothness, and above all it is beautiful with all its shades of green. I also made a fruit salad with fresh mango, pineapple and finely chopped red chili, and the fantastic bread. For dessert we had Norwegian Römme, made from a jar which also was in that illegal bag. A very fat, smooth porridge served with cinnamon and caster sugar! An interesting cross over-dinner!

Green ginger noodle salad.
Recipe from Arla
Serves 10 on a buffet
200 grams egg noodles
2 tbsp neutral oil, like canola, corn or sunflower
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground ginger, I used fresh and a little more...
pinch of salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 spring onions, finely sliced
1 cucumber, cut in half lengthwise, deseeded and sliced
about 1 litre of mixed green lettuce - rocket, spinach, romain...whatever you fancy
I also added sugar snaps and green peppers. Zucchini might have worked too

Lemon dressing
300 ml plain yoghurt, I used turkish thick yoghurt
zest and juice from half a lemon
1 small garlic clove, pressed
small pinch of salt and black pepper

Boil the noodles according to instructions. Rinse them with cold water and let them drain off. Use a pair of scissors and cut a few times directly in the bowl, to make it easier to serve and eat... Pour in a big bowl and stir in the oil, lemon juice, ginger, salt and pepper. Prepare the veggies. Mix the dressing. All this can be made ahead. Before serving, mix the noodles carefully with the veggies and drizzle over some of the dressing, serve the rest on the side. Delicious with chicken, prawns, on its own... It keeps in the fridge for 1-2 days.

3 comments:

Steve said...

You celebrated your birthday with smuggled prawns? I like your sense of style! Happy Birthday, again.

Anonymous said...

I love the "prawn exchange"!

Happy Birthday, Clivia!

Anne said...

Happy birthday, happy birthday!!! And the salad sounds fantastic! We'll have spring soon, I'm hoping!!