Location: My tiny kitchen

It has been hot for the whole week. The temperature has been staying in the high 80’s and this means a lot of sweats for us in our apartment. Our apartment is good in a sense that in the winter when the snow falls, we are kept comfortably warm even when the heat is turned on low. We never know why, but our apartment tends to conserve heat really well. Winter in Vancouver generally starts in mid September and ends in early May, but because our apartment is very warm, we can go by without heat year round except for December and January. You can guess how warm our apartment gets in the summer. It is very hot indeed, in spite we have all windows and doors opened, and have two fans blowing at full speed.

When it’s hot, all I want for dinner is something cold. Although I’m usually not a fan of salads, I always miss them when summer gets too hot. I notice that salads served at Japanese izakayas have an interesting dressing that tastes like a combination of soy sauce, lemon juice and oil. I like the soy sauce in the salad; it adds a lot more flavour to the salad than any type of salt can. Of course being a carnivore, I can’t have a salad with only vegetables. The prawns served in this salad are gigantic. Prawns are measured in “counts” and a smaller count means bigger prawns. These prawns are 6/8 count, which means in a pound, there are at most only 6 to 8 prawns.

The apartment doesn’t feel so hot anymore when I have a plate of cold salad with crisp lettuce, sweet tomatoes and succulent prawns. Of course, a glass of chilled semi-dry Riesling also does the trick of cooling down really well

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This recipe makes 2 salads. Quarter 4 small tomatoes and julienne half of a lettuce. Cover the tomatoes and lettuce with a plastic wrap and store them in the fridge.

To make the dressing, put the following into a bowl:

- 1 tsp sugar
- A few drops of sesame oil
- Freshly ground pepper
- 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- Juice of 1/2 lemon

Slowly drizzle 1/3 cup of olive oil into the bowl containing the dressing ingredients. While pouring the olive oil into the bowl, quickly whisk all ingredients together.

Peel the shell off eight 6/8 count prawns (if using smaller prawns, prepare more prawns). Using a paring knife, take the vein out of prawns by making an incision on the back of the prawns. Place the prawns into a bowl.

Onto the prawns add:

- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tbsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- A few drops of sesame oil
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- Freshly ground pepper

Mix the prawns well. Heat a pan with oil. When the pan is hot, put the prawns into the pan by leaving enough space between each prawn. Over high heat, pan fry one side of the prawns for one minute. Flip prawns over and pan fry the other side for another minute. Be careful not to overcook the prawns. If the prawns are not cooked after 2 minutes, turn the heat to medium-high and check every 20 seconds to see if they are done.

To assemble, place the lettuce on a plate. Put half of the tomatoes on the lettuce. Drizzle the dressing over the lettuce and tomatoes. Place 4 prawns on the salad. Sprinkle deep fried crispy onion flakes all over the salad. Garnish with a sprig of cilantro.