Thai Lobster Salad

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(Photo by Ben Ward/Flickr)

Ingredients

1 cooked lobster
juice of 2 limes
1 teaspoon sugar
1 shallot, sliced very fine
2 red chillies, seeded and sliced
1 teaspoon rice flour
250 ml/8 fl oz/1 cup canned coconut milk
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 fresh kaffir lime leaves, slivered

Directions

Cut through membrane on underside of lobster tail, and remove meat from tail. Cut across into rounds. Reserve claws and legs. Place lobster meat in a bowl. Stir together lime juice and sugar and pour over lobster. Scatter with a few slices of shallot and half the chillies. Mix gently.

Mix rice flour with a tablespoon of coconut milk. Heat remaining coconut milk in a small saucepan. Stir in rice flour mixture and cook until slightly thickened. Pour into a bowl to cool. Drain liquid from lobster and stir liquid into coconut milk. Add fish sauce. Pour coconut milk dressing over base of serving dish. Arrange lobster slices on top. Garnish with remaining shallot and chilli slices and thread-fine slivers of kaffir leaf. Lobster claws and legs may be placed around the meat. Serve cold.

Recipe excerpted from Encyclopedia of Asian Food by Charmaine Solomon (Periplus Editions, 1998)