Grilled chili shrimp, ripe mango cubes, avocado, cucumber, and a lime-fish sauce dressing. Southeast Asia meets the tropics.
Toss raw shrimp with lime zest, chili, garlic, salt, and a drizzle of oil. Marinate 10 minutes minimum. Don't skip this — the marinade chars beautifully on the grill and perfumes the whole salad.
Cook shrimp in a very hot grill pan or skillet, 90 seconds per side. Shrimp overcook in seconds — pull them the moment they curl into a C shape and turn pink. Overcooked shrimp taste like rubber.
Cube mango, slice cucumber, and fan avocado. Arrange lettuce on a wide platter. Layer mango and cucumber throughout. The goal is a platter where every forkful contains multiple elements.
Place warm shrimp on the salad while still sizzling. Add avocado last to prevent browning. Pour lime-fish sauce dressing over everything. Scatter chili and cilantro. Serve immediately.
The four-flavour Southeast Asian hit: salty fish sauce, sour lime, sweet palm sugar, hot chili. Balance them all and nothing else matters.