Green mango salad

A brilliant summer salad to serve with something barbecued and spicy. Cool, refreshing, crunchy, sweet, sour, nutty, herby. It’s like a small and very delicious party in your mouth. A favourite with everyone who tries it. Feeds 4-6 as a side dish. Don’t worry about exact quantities – it’s very forgiving!

• 1 large unripe mango – it needs to be unripe or it’ll turn to mush when you slice it
• ½ red pepper
• ½ small red onion
• 4 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
• 6 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
• 4 tbsp roasted unsalted peanuts, coarsely ground (not too fine, into small pieces rather than meal)
• 6 tbsp roasted unsalted cashew nuts
• 1 tbsp Thai fish sauce
• ½ clove garlic, minced as finely as poss (a microplane grater is ideal for this)
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp peanut oil (or any unflavoured oil)

1. Peel the mango using a vegetable peeler.
2. The description of how to cut them is a bit complicated. If it makes no sense, just bear in mind that, at the end of the process, you should end up with a large pile of long and very thin strips of mango. Here goes… Lie the peeled mango on one of its broad sides and, holding it firmly and still, use a large (very sharp!) knife to cut into it lengthways from top to bottom in very narrow stripes down to the stone about 3-5mm apart. Cut a small slice off the base of the mango so it can stand on its end without falling over then stand it up and cut very thin layers off the sliced front of the mango. Turn the mango round and repeat the process on the other side. With the edge pieces where there is no stone, just chop them off and slice them separately
3. Cut the red pepper into long, thin strips to match the mango
4. Cut the red onion into wafer-thin half moons.
5. Put the mango, red pepper, red onion, herbs and peanuts in a bowl
6. To make the dressing, mix together the garlic, sugar, fish sauce, lime juice and oil. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. It smells quite pungent, but it tastes really good, so don’t worry!
7. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix it all together so that everything is coated. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed – it should be piquant with garlic, sour with lime, sweet with sugar, savoury with the fish sauce, and you should be able to taste all the different elements being delicious in perfect harmony.
8. Serve immediately (or within the hour)