Yum Talay (Thai Seafood Salad)

Yum talay is what a Thai seafood restaurant sends out first: mixed seafood, barely cooked, dressed hard with lime juice, fish sauce, chilli and sugar while it is still warm so it drinks up the flavour.

There is no oil in the dressing at all, which makes it one of the leanest high-protein dishes on the site. Do not walk away from the pot; three minutes is the entire cooking time, and overcooked squid cannot be rescued.

Servings
4
Prep Time
12
mins
Cook Time
6
mins
Ingredients
15
Total Time
18
mins

Pantry bits

No items found.

Ingredients

  • 300g green prawns, peeled and deveined
  • 300g cleaned squid tubes, scored and cut into strips
  • 300g mussels or scallops
  • 3 tbsp lime juice
  • 2 tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 tbsp palm or caster sugar
  • 3 to 5 birds eye chillies, finely chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
  • 2 celery stalks, sliced on an angle
  • 1 Lebanese cucumber, sliced
  • 1 cup coriander leaves
  • 1/2 cup mint leaves
  • Lettuce leaves, to serve

Instructions

  1. Bring a saucepan of salted water to a gentle boil. Poach the prawns for 90 seconds, lift them out, then the squid for 90 seconds and the mussels or scallops for 1 to 2 minutes until just opened or opaque.
  2. Drain everything well and spread it on a tray so it stops cooking. Do not rinse it, and do not let it go stone cold.
  3. Whisk the lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, chilli and garlic together until the sugar dissolves. Taste and adjust so it is equally sour, salty, sweet and hot.
  4. Put the warm seafood in a large bowl with the onion, tomato, celery and cucumber and pour over the dressing. Toss well and leave for 2 minutes.
  5. Fold through the coriander and mint at the last moment and serve piled onto lettuce leaves.

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