Thai pork and grapefruit salad with caramel palm sugar dressing

Tamara West

Salty, sweet, sour and zesty, give your tastebuds a workout.

Ingredients

400 g	Pork, good quality, lean and thinly sliced into 3cm x 1cm pieces (Main)
2 cups	Salad leaves, watercress is ideal
1 cup	Mint leaves, large leaves torn in half
½	Telegraph cucumbers, thinly sliced
1	Grapefruit, peeled using a small sharp knife (Main)
1	Red chilli, hot, halved and thinly sliced
2 Tbsp	Coconut shreds, or flakes, toasted
1 packet	Jasmine rice, steamed, for serving

Caramel palm sugar dressing

2 Tbsp	Palm sugar, shave using heavy knife if using hard block form
1 Tbsp	Water
¼ cup	Fish sauce
1	Garlic clove, thinly sliced
2	Lemons, juice of, or limes

Directions

1. Bring a medium-sized saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add all of pork to saucepan at once, stirring to separate the pork slices. Cook for 3-4 minutes until cooked through, then strain into a colander and set aside while you prepare the salad. Refrigerate if you need to keep pork longer than 10 minutes before serving.
2. Place watercress sprigs, mint and cucumber in a large salad bowl. Carefully cut grapefruit segments from between membranes and add these and any grapefruit juice to the salad.
3. To make dressing, place palm sugar in a small saucepan and stir over a medium heat until it melts, then continue cooking until the palm sugar darkens slightly. Remove from heat and add water, taking care as sugar may spit. Stir to dissolve sugar in water, then transfer to a small jug and add fish sauce, garlic, and lemon or lime juice.
4. Add pork to salad bowl and spoon over half of the dressing. Toss to combine.
5. Spoon over more dressing and scatter chilli and coconut on top. Serve with steamed jasmine rice.