The first dish for this World Spices Cooking Class was a vegetarian Burmese salad. Consisting of peanuts, lentils, a mass of ginger and melon, this salad was an unusual combination of flavours unlike anything I’ve ever had before. But I will certainly have it again!

Burmese Ginger Thoke Melon Salad

Burmese melon salad

• This Burmese salad started with me mincing a mass of ginger for the marinade. I have never used so much ginger in one dish – 3 square inches of ginger for a salad for four. I thought that it would be horribly overpowering (but it wasn’t).
• Other ingredients in the marinade consisted of sesame seeds, ground cardamom, lime juice, soy sauce, sugar, oil and salt.
  

  melons in the marinade

• A mix of diced melon was left in the marinade while the other ingredients were prepared.
  

  the melon salad is gently tossed; the sliced Kaffir lime leaves are on top

• Later lentils (surprise! apparently they are what melded the disparate flavours together), toasted coconut, roasted peanuts, sliced kaffir leaves and cilantro were gently folded in.
  

  Burmese melon salad

Chef Eric posts many of his recipes on his website: http://www.911cheferic.com/