This post deserves a special introduction. It is our first guest blog post. Its author, Sarah Woollett, played an important role in the realisation of this project, contributing advice, tasty recipes and unwavering encouragement. Sarah is an incredibly competent and knowledgable cook and here in the studio we were lucky enough to be on the receiving end of her culinary efforts. She would appear, larger than life, bearing brioche fresh from the oven, Turkish delight ice cream, pumpkin scones and if we were really lucky, some of her beautiful handmade chocolates. Though she has now left Fisher & Paykel, we are fortunate enough to have a collection of her recipes that we will post over the coming months. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
I was taught this recipe at the old Epicurean Workshop in Auckland before it closed down. I know there are about a million Thai Chicken Salad recipes out there; however, this one is the best of the lot in my opinion. I love that it uses some ingredients that, for me, really epitomise the Thai flavour experience – Galangal, lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves. It is definitely worthwhile going out of your way to find these, as it is what gives the recipe its punch. I tend to buy frozen galangal (related to ginger) from the Asian food store, and grate it frozen otherwise it will go a bit mushy on defrosting. Just put what you don’t use back in the freezer for next time.