Cook’s notes

The perfect side dish for non-fans of raw vegetable salads like me. I know that making a salad with cooked vegetables takes more work than tossing together raw veggies, but wait ’till you’ve tried this technique.

Inspired by a recipe from a cookbook of one of the three non-Asian celebrity chefs that I have immense respect for. His name is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (the other two are Alton Brown and Tom Norrington-Davies). We used to catch his show on cable TV.

Tinapa is the generic name for smoked fish in the Philippines. It’s hot-smoked fish, not cold-smoked, so it’s fully cooked. It is available fresh (meaning, newly smoked and still warm), frozen or soaked in flavorful oil.

If tinapa in oil is not available in your part of the world, the best substitute I can recommend in anchovies in oil.

For best results, leave the salad to rest for about half an hour before serving. This allows the potatoes to soak up the saltiness of the fish and its soaking oil.

Potatoes and green beans salad

Prep: 5

Cook: 20

Resting 30

Total: 55

Servings: 4 people

Course: Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine: Fusion

Label: Green beans, Potato salad, Seafood and vegetable salad

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Ingredients

1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 large potatoes peeled and cut into one-inch cubes
15 to 18 green beans trimmed and cut into two-inch length
¼ cup tinapa flakes
2 to 3 tablespoons oil from the jar of tinapa
lemon juice to taste

Instructions

Pour about six cups of water into a pot, add the salt and vinegar, and boil.
Dump in the potatoes and cook for ten minutes or until starting to soften but the center offers a slight resistance when pierced with a knife.
Add the green beans and cook for another ten minutes.
Drain the potatoes and green beans and place in a bowl.
Add the tinapa flakes.
Drizzle in the oil.
Toss to distribute the fish.
Squeeze lemon juice over the vegetables and fish, and toss again.
Leave the salad to rest for 30 minutes before serving.