Sweet coconut & basil salad

Name: Sweet coconut & basil salad
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Indonesian
Ingredients: 100 g (3½ oz) fine green beans, sliced to tiny rounds; 100 g (3½ oz) Chinese napa cabbage, finely shredded; 3-4 tablespoons dark palm sugar (gula jawa), shaved; 300 g (10½ oz) fresh coconut, finely grated; 100 g (3½ oz) cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely diced; 100 g (3½ oz) beansprouts; 2 red bird’s eye chillies, sliced; 50 g (2 oz) Thai basil, leaves picked; 3 cm (1¼ inches) kencur or 2 cm (¾ inch) galangal, peeled and chopped; ½ teaspoon salt; 2 lime leaves, deveined and finely sliced

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Fire Islands

By Eleanor Ford

Published 2019

About

A Central Javanese relative of urap, trancam is light and fragrant, sweet and spicy. I can’t think of a table of food from this book that wouldn’t be improved by having this amongst its members.

Ingredients

2 red bird’s eye chillies, sliced
3 cm (1¼ inches) kencur or

Asia
Indonesia
Side dish
South East Asia
Vegan
Spicy
Gluten-free

Method

Using a mortar and pestle, pound together the chillies, kencur and lime leaves to make a rough paste. Add the salt and palm sugar and continue to grind to a smoother paste flecked with lime leaves. Add the coconut and mix well to make the dressing. Taste: both the sweetness and spice should be very pronounced at this stage as they will be muted by the vegetables.

When ready to serve, to