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Preparation
45 minutes
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Processing
10 minutes
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Difficulty
Easy
If you are fascinated by the dishes of the land of golden temples, then let’s join TasteVN cook right away with the recipe for mixed salad with delicious and spicy blood cockles characteristic of Thai style as follows.
Ingredients for Blood Cockle Salad For 2 people
Blood cockles 500 g Dry vermicelli 90 g Onion 1 bulb Bell pepper 1 piece Green chili 2 pieces Red chili 1 piece Lemon 2 fruits Cherry tomatoes 50 g Red onion 1 bulb Garlic 1 bulb (2 cloves) Palm sugar 50 g (or granulated sugar) Lemongrass 1 stick Kaffir lime leaves 1 g Calamondin 20 gr Small carrot 1 bulb Tamarind juice 2 tablespoons
How to choose delicious blood cockles
- You should choose medium-sized blood cockles to prepare a tasty dish. If you select small ones, the meat will shrink during cooking, and for large cockles, the meat will be tough and not enjoyable to eat.
- To pick fresh cockles, pay attention to baskets with many cockles that have their tongues sticking out. However, if you have time, you should select each one to ensure the best quality of the dish.
- Additionally, live cockles are those that feel firm in hand, not too light and not too heavy, and importantly, they should not have a foul smell.
Tools needed:
non-stick pan, basin, bowl,…
How to prepare Blood Cockle Salad
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Prepare the ingredients
– First, you need to soak the blood cockles in rice water to remove all the dirt. If you cannot prepare rice water, you can also soak the cockles in a little diluted salt water and add a few pieces of chili, and the cockles will be clean.
– Additionally, you can add a little cooking oil or sesame oil to the soaking water to help clean the cockles and remove sand.
– After about 20 – 30 minutes, you should scrub the shells of the blood cockles with a little salt, using a toothbrush or other cleaning tools to easily clean the shells.
– Boil water on the stove and add about 2 teaspoons of vinegar, then add the blood cockles and blanch for about 30 seconds to 1 minute until the shells open.
– Peel the shallots and onions and cut them into thin rounds across the bulb.
– Peel the carrots, wash them, and cut or grate them into small strands. Clean the lemongrass and cut it into slices. Remove the seeds from the chili and cut it into small strands.
– Wash the lime leaves and finely chop them into small strands. Clean the outer skin of the kumquat and slice it horizontally into pieces.
– Wash the cherry tomatoes and cut them in half. Clean the lime peel and cut it into 8 equal small pieces.
– Soak the vermicelli in cold water for about 10 – 15 minutes, then use scissors to cut the vermicelli into shorter pieces for easier use.
– Next, blanch the vermicelli in boiling water for about 1 – 2 minutes to soften it. However, do not blanch for too long to avoid making the vermicelli too soft.
– Remove the vermicelli and immediately place it in a bowl of cold water, stirring briefly to cool it down and then draining it in a colander. Add a little cooking oil to the vermicelli and mix well; this will help prevent the vermicelli from sticking during preparation.
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Make the salad dressing
– Put 2 peeled garlic cloves into a mortar, add green chili and 1 bird’s eye chili, then pound finely. After that, add 50g of palm sugar and continue to pound until the ingredients are well mixed.
– Next, add 30 ml of good fish sauce and 50 ml of tamarind juice into the mortar, then use a spoon to mix well to complete the salad dressing.
– You can adjust the amount of ingredients for the dressing to suit your taste.
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Proceed to mix the salad
– Place the blanched blood cockles in a large bowl, layer the prepared ingredients on top in the following order: chili, carrot, lime leaves, shallots, onion, lemongrass, lime, and cherry tomatoes.
– Drizzle the dressing evenly over the bowl, use chopsticks to mix thoroughly so that the dressing is well absorbed by the ingredients.
– Then add the blanched vermicelli and continue to mix well with chopsticks. When serving, just plate it and enjoy.
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Final product
This Thai-style blood cockle salad will be a perfect combination of ingredients. The spicy taste of chili blends with the sourness of tamarind, lime, and calamondin along with eye-catching colors. The dish can be served with shrimp crackers, and will surely satisfy you and make you rave about this recipe.
Tips for cutting onions without tears:
- To cut onions without making your eyes sting, you should leave the root of the onion intact; only cut it off after you finish cutting. Additionally, some methods like putting the onion in the refrigerator or soaking the onion in ice water before cutting will also prevent you from “tearing up”.
- Moreover, you can light a small candle while cutting onions or rub a slice of potato on both sides of the knife to reduce the pungency of the onion.
- Once you’ve finished cutting the onion, you should immediately place it in a bowl of ice water and soak it for about 5 – 7 minutes to make the onion crispy and reduce the strong smell when eating.
Tip for you:
To prevent your salad from becoming watery, you should limit the use of too many liquid ingredients such as vinegar or lemon juice; the salad dressing needs to be concentrated. If necessary, you should not mix the salad in advance; only add the dressing to the salad when serving (mix only what you will eat).
It’s really simple to make your favorite dish at home, isn’t it? Get cooking now, TasteVN wishes you success!
*Refer to the images and recipes from cooky.vn.
