How to make: Grilled Seafood Salad with Vermicelli and Siracha Dressing

My lime tree floweth over again- or is that overfloweth? Whatever….both versions mean the same thing- we have a lot of limes. And that can mean just one thing- lime week again….and that means- more recipes.

First up is this grilled seafood salad.

What can be better after a sunny Spring day, than some freshly grilled seafood served with a vermicelli salad given a kickalong by a peppy thai flavoured siracha* dressing…with lime, of course.

This recipe comes from Spirit House- Hot Plate. I’ve changed the quantities a bit as we eat this as a full meal.

Spirit House is a Thai restaurant in Eumundi, in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast- inland from Noosa- and well worth a visit if you’re up that way.

This serves 4.

For the seafood…

150g scallops

500g king prawns, peeled and cleaned. I leave the tails intact so that it makes counting who got the most prawns easier.

250g squid or cuttlefish

2 tablespoons ginger

1 large red chilli- seeded and finely chopped

2 tablespoons oyster sauce- I use a gluten free one

Don’t be too precious about the seafood or quantities- we used baby octopus instead of the scallops yesterday, as the scallops looked a little watery and with grilled seafood you want to buy what looks best. We also used a large fillet of snapper- painting that with the marinade before cooking.

Toss the scallops, prawns and squid in the oyster sauce, ginger and chilli and set aside for 30 minutes.

For the dressing…

2 tablespoons fish sauce

2-3 tablespoons palm sugar (I use 2, but you might have a sweeter tooth than us)

1-2 tablespoons hot (siracha) chilli sauce (I use 2- but we like it hot…)

3 tablespoons lime juice

Mix together the palm sugar and fish sauce in a mortar and pestle until the sugar is dissolved. Mix in the siracha sauce and lime juice and set aside.

For the salad…

400g vermicelli noodles

4- 6 spring onions sliced into shreds

½ cup coriander leaves

2 long red chillis, seeded and cut into thin strips

Soak the noodles in boiling water and, when just cooked, plunge into cold water to refresh, before draining thoroughly. You might need to cut them to make them easier to deal with.

Toss through the remaining ingredients and dressing.

To put it all together

Grill the seafood on a well oiled barbecue flat plate. Better yet, if you’re crap at cooking seafood, as I am, get your husband to do it!

Add the hot seafood to the noodle salad, transfer to a salad bowl or shallow dish, garnish with some toasted sesame seeds and serve immediately- before arguing over who got the most prawns.

*Siracha is a hot chilli sauce. The brand I buy is Ayam. It’s available from Asian supermarkets and good produce stores. Substitute with sambal oelek if you’re unable to get it.