Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Red Cabbage Vermicelli Salad



When we bought a HUGE red cabbage from Albany markets, I wasn't sure what to do with it. This was the case of "I have never experimented with red cabbage, how do I use it?". Besides, I thought it was wayyy too fresh to do a stir fry and wanted to retain the sweetness of it. Instead of googling or peaking into one of the recipe books I have on the shelf, I decided to make a thai-style inspired seafood vermicelli salad.

I love the fact that this was a one pot-salad dish. The mixture of flavors were beautiful. Sweetness from the cabbage blended very well with the dressing that was mixed up. The toasted cashew nuts provided a crunch and I simply adore the stain that the red cabbage gave to the vermicelli noodles.

I will not hestitate to make this again- I just have to locate a good vegetable store that sells fresh red cabbage.


Red Cabbage Vermicelli Salad (serves 4)
150grams of squid cleaned and scored
50 grams of shelled prawns
1/4 of the red cabbage sliced thinly
3-4 sticks of rice vermicelli soaked in hot water and drained
1/4 cup of cashew nuts toasted
sweet chilli sauce
seasoned salt and pepper
olive oil


Dressing
Juice of a whole lemon
2-3 tsp of fish sauce
1 tsp of sugar
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tsp of sesame oil


After cleaning the squid and scoring it, I marinated it with some sweet chili sauce, pepper and salt. Heat a grill pan. Swirl some olive oil in it. Place the red cabbage in the pan and heat it up for 1 min. You don't want the cabbage to be fully cooked, the heat just mellow the flavors down slightly without taking the crunch out. Remove from the pan and placed it in a huge salad bowl.

Now that the pan is hot, char grilled the squid and prawns.

Mix the dressing up in a jug.

Assemble salad. Place drained vermicelli into the salad bowl and top it with char grilled squid and cashew nuts. Toss it and serve.

9 comments:

KellytheCulinarian said...

I'm not a huge cabbage fan, but those are lovely.

Christina Kim said...

I love these cabbages!! And squids...wow, yummy!:D

Rita Sella said...

I have bad experience with red cabbage, but certainly will try for salad, thanks

Hazza said...

this looked really simple and yet effective. now, if I can some good quality squid, I will have a go at this too..believe it or not, its not easy to find quality fresh seafood here in UK, despite it being an island.

InspiredMumof2 said...

The red cabbage not only looks colorful, its natural sweetness is nice too. I've been eating alot of salads lately. This is one of the mixed salad veggies that I bought in a pack from Cold Storage. Love the squid but can only drool haha.

Little Corner of Mine said...

What a refreshing and lovely salad!

SIG said...

Honestly I am not a salad person hehe but it does look good.

daphne said...

kelly- i wasn't before as well. ;p

christy- filling meal!


rita- did u? oh dear. i wonder what happened?

hazza- it's hard to find fresh and quality seafood in aus too. most of the time, we hv to get frozen.

inspiredmumof2-hey hey.hv u? me too! it's too hot to eat anything else.

little corner- thanks!

singairishgirl- i wasn't before but grown to like it over the past 2 yrs.

tigerfish said...

This salad sounds so refreshing for me :) I'm already enjoying the textures of the squid (QQ) and the cabbage :D

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