Let’s take a break from the Ilocandia food trip. There are still tons of photos to resize and crop, my eyes are getting watery from the job so let me switch to recipe mode for a while. A very simple recipe for a light lunch that won’t give you indigestion in the summer heat paratha with toast pork and two-mango salad.
Soft layered texture
Paratha is an Indian flatbread that you can buy frozen in some grocery stores (I buy mine from Shopwise). Speedy and I have fallen in love with paratha and it is now our favorite flatbread. We love the soft layered texture, the slight charring that occurs when it is cooked in a hot pan, and the fact that it goes well with just about anything soups, salads, stews, and simple vegetable dips.
Paratha with roast pork and two mango salad
Frozen paratha contains instructions on how they should be cooked. In a nutshell, the individual discs of flatbread should go in a hot pan before they have thawed and softened. Paratha cooks in three minutes or less. Since they are best eaten straight from the pan, it is ideal that you prepare all the other condiments and dishes to go with the paratha before you start cooking the bread.
The salad is something inspired by a pasta dish that we enjoyed in Laoag City. I’ll show you the photo later when I finish cropping and signing the Ilocos Norte photos.
You can use any roast (or grilled) meat, chicken, or seafood.
Two-mango salad
Ingredients
1 unripe mango
1 ripe mango
1 red onion
a bunch of lettuce (any kind), torn into bite-size pieces
salt
pepper
a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
Cut the mangoes and discard the stones. Score the mango flesh by making criss-cross cuts to the skin. Scoop out the cubed flesh into a bowl. Peel and roughly chop the onion. Add the onion to the mangoes. Toss. Add the lettuce. Toss. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil, toss and the salad is ready to serve.
