Prawn and Black Rice Salad With Vietnamese Dressing

This is a Nigella Lawson recipe from her summer collection. However, I had to share it with you. It is really a wonderfully tasty dish especially for those hot summer days. Here is Australia this recipe is a regular on our Christmas Day menu. The colours in the dish are stunning. Preparation time includes peeling the green (raw) prawns/shrimp and the cooling time for the prawns and the cooked black rice.

• Ready In: 1 hr
• Yields: 4 as a starter

Ingredients

• Dressing

• 2  cloves garlic, minced or crushed
• 2  fresh thai  birds eye chiles or 2  other red chilies, finely sliced
• 4  cm ginger, approx finely minced (I just chopped the heck out of it)
• 4  tablespoons fish sauce
• 2  tablespoons lime juice (about 1 lime)
• 4  tablespoons water
• 2  tablespoons caster sugar

• For the Salad

• 250  g  nanjing black rice
• 500  g  green or raw peeled  prawns or 500  g shrimp
•  salt
• 1⁄2  lemon, juice of

Directions

1. Dressing:
2. To make the dressing sauce, simply mix all the ingredients together.
3. Black Rice:
4. Cook as per the instructions on the packet.
5. Usually 25-30 minutes.
6. Prawns:
7. Poach the prawns for 5 minutes in some simmering salted water to which you have added the juice of half a lemon.
8. Cook the prawns until they are JUST cooked through but still very tender.
9. Let both the rice and the prawns cool.
10. Then give the dressing sauce a quick stir and spoon some over the rice, fork this through.
11. Then tumble the prawns on top, spooning a little the remainder of the sauce over.
12. Serves 2 as a main dish and 4 as a starter.