Keyword: fish and rice, fish salad, fresh salad, mackerel salad, rice salad, thai salad, tom yum goong
Prep Time: 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time: 3 minutesminutes
Total Time: 13 minutesminutes
Servings: 2people
Calories: 912kcal
Author: Phasinee Doddeo
Cost: $5
There are some wonderful Thai salads but this Mackerel mixed rice salad stands head and shoulders apart. You can use fresh fish or canned and it works with other types of oily fish like sardines and pilchards too. So versatile and inexpensive to make as well.And quite quick if you are good at chopping!It is a great recipe to use up leftover rice but is certainly special enough to steam rice just to make the dish.Its excellent reason for being is that the rice is mixed and seasoned with part of the fish and then served with the rest of it alongside a range of little extra sides. The person eating the salad gets to choose exactly how to design each spoonful for a wide range of taste tensations from every spoonful. You have GOT to try this!!
If you do not have leftover rice to use up then steam rice in readiness with 1/3 cup of dry jasmine rice and 1/4 cup of riceberry (brown or black rice) per person. This recipe assumes you have already cooked rice.
Prepare the Fish
If using canned fish then drain any canning oil or brine - fish canned in tomato sauce will burm so avoid. Retain oil for frying. Skip the instructions for deboning as canned fish bones are soft enough to be eaten (and full of nutrients)
If using fresh fish then steam or microwave to cook according to size. You can also simply fry the fish straight off and skip the section below but be sure to cook the fish through without drying it out or burning it. The choice of direct frying or steaming/microwaving and then frying depends on your experience.
Frying the Fish
Add cooking or olive oil to a pan under high heat - you can use the canning oil to fry too just be sure the heat is not so high to smoke it.
When the oil is hot, sauté the cooked fresh or canned fish to brown on both sides and warm through. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a bit.
Preparing the Sides
Chop all of the 'sides' ingredients separately into small bite sized pieces. These will be made into little individual piles when serving so don't go mix them all up!
Making the Makerel Rice Salad
Take the partly cooled fish and separate into two halves trying to keep one half in tact - this will be served up alongside the mixed rice salad later. Remove all bones, Break up the other half of the fish into small pieces to mix into the rice later.
In a largish mixing bowl (big enough to hold all the rice and fish), mix together all the yum sauce ingredients.
When mixed add in the separated and broken pieces of fish and the cooked steamed riceberry and jasmine rice. The rice needs to be comfortably warm so if very cool just warm up a little first by whichever method suits you.
Mix together the yum sauce, broken fish pieces and rice very well using your fingers to complete the rice salad
Spoon into an individual serving sized bowl, press down the moist rice and tip out onto your serving plates forming a little dome.