Sweet, savoury, hot and sour, this salad, with its lively burst of flavour and varied textures makes a wonderfully refreshing first course.
For 5 people, you will need:
Two celery stalks, 75g of bean sprouts, one green apple, lemon juice, two to three tablespoonfuls of sunflower/ground nut/grape seed oil, 500g of squid (weighed after skinning and cleaning), two teaspoonfuls of shredded fresh ginger, one small green or red chilli, (deseeded and finely sliced), three cloves of garlic (peeled and crushed), two tablespoonfuls of soy sauce, 350g of cooked, rinsed and drained noodles, one red chilli ‘flower’ for decoration (see recipe for details).
Slice the squid into rings. Trim the celery, and slice it into thin, broad, oblique pieces. Blanch it and the bean sprouts in boiling water for a minute, drain, and rinse them under plenty of cold water, to keep them crisp. Quarter, core and thinly slice the apple, and toss it in a little lemon juice to stop it browning.
Heat the oil, and in it fry the squid until it is just cooked, opaque yet tender. With the squid still in the pan, add the ginger, chilli, garlic and soy sauce. Cook for a minute more, and remove the pan from the heat.
Drain the chilled noodles, and put them into a bowl. Arrange the vegetables on top and then the squid on top of the vegetables. Decorate this with the chilli flower to indicate that it is a spicy dish. To make the chilli flower, wear rubber or latex gloves, and with a sharp knife cut right through the chilli from stem to point in three places, turning it after each cut. Put the cut chilli in a bowl of cold water and the ‘petals’ will curl back. Discard the seeds. Spring onions and radishes can be cut and curled in the same way.
