Healthy Reds & Greens

Having had a wonderfully restful day, which basically involved pottering around at home and spending some quality time browsing at the local library, I came home this evening very determined to spend no longer than 20 minutes in the kitchen fixing up dinner!


And so, a simple salad it was, taking inspiration from the Grapefruit (Vietnamese Pomelo) Salad I recently had in Hanoi. Didn't spy any pomelos at my supermarket nearby, and went with Ruby Red Grapefruit instead, which is a little bit sweeter than the yellow variety of grapefruits but more tart than pomelos. I prefer the Ruby Reds, their lovely luscious pinkish color giving no hint at all of the acidity within.

• Washed, rinsed and spun-dry some butterhead lettuce leaves and plated them. Spin-drying using the salad spinner was quite theraupeutic.
  
• Shelled and deveined the prawns and cooked them quickly (cooking didn't even take more than two minutes) in a pot of boiling water. Removed cooked prawns from pot and drained.
• Sliced rind off the grapefruit and removed the luscious segments in thin wedges.
• Shredded some basil leaves and thinly sliced one red chilli.
• Chopped some roasted cashew nuts (didn't have any roasted peanuts at hand, but the cashews tasted just as great, if not better)
• And since I was trying to re-create a hint of my recent Hanoi food adventure, made some semblance of the Nuoc Nam Cham (fish sauce dip) as a dressing for the salad - stirred together 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, 5 to 6 tablespoons of water, 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar, 2 heaped tablespoons of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of lime juice and the thinly sliced red chilli, until sugar dissolved.
  
• Tossed the grapefruit, prawns and basil leaves with half of the dressing, and placed on top of the plated lettuce leaves. The rest of the dressing can be served at the table and added based on own taste. Sprinkled the chopped cashew nuts on top of the salad and it's chow time.

Fresh succulent prawns, lettuce leaves with bite, juicy segments of grapefruit, crunchy nuts, a hint of heat from the sliced chillies, all bound by the salty sweet fish sauce dressing - 15 minutes tops for preparation, another 5 minutes to take the shot, and I was plonked with yummy plate in front of the square box showing my current favourite korean drama serial! Now this is a totally relaxing Saturday night!