Thai squid salad

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 600 g squid
• 60 ml lime juice
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp lemongrass, fleshy end only, very finely chopped
• 1 tbsp ginger, very finely chopped
• 4 shallots (Thai shallots), cut into thin slices
• 2 pieces of celery (Thai celery), alternatively 2 small stalks of local celery
• 3 spring onions, cut into rings
• 1 handful of coriander leaves, roughly chopped, with stems
• Mint, some leaves, roughly chopped
• 2 chili peppers, red, pitted and finely chopped (or chili powder or chili flakes)
• some mint for garnishing
• some coriander leaves for garnishing

Instructions

Working time approx. 45 minutes; Total time approx. 45 minutes

Yam Plaa Meuk

Clean the squid under running water. Pull the entrails out of the body by the tentacles and cut them off below the mouthparts, leaving only the tentacles. Peel off the red skin, remove the ink sac, and the transparent horny strip. Rinse the inside of the body thoroughly. Heat water in a pot and add salt. Add the squid tubes and tentacles and bring to a boil. Cook for about 1 minute, then remove from the heat and let stand for another 5-10 minutes (depending on the size of the squid). Drain and let cool. Then cut into thin rings and halve the tentacles. Mix together a dressing from the lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, lemongrass, ginger, and shallots. Pour over the squid and mix. Cut the celery into 1 cm thick slices and toss into the salad along with the spring onions, herbs, and chilies. (German celery must be unthreaded and cut into 2 mm thick slices.) Serve garnished with a few whole coriander and mint leaves. Note: For calamari, simply place the tubes in boiling salted water and let them steep next to the stove for 3-4 minutes. Larger tubes should be cut crosswise on the inside at 2 mm intervals and proceed as in the recipe above. Tips: You can also use 2-3 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced. However, I would omit the ginger; that would be too much flavor for me. I use very little lemongrass because I chop it very finely (for inexperienced guests and course participants), which makes it more flavorful. If you don’t mind eating lemongrass in very fine slices, you can use more. To do this, generously remove the outer leaves from the stalks and use only the whitish-yellow “soft” parts.