One of the advantages of living in Sydney is having a friend turn up with a banana bud cut freshly from his garden. I decide to make a Burmese-style thote; a fragrant, light yet substantial salad tossed in a salty, sour and spicy dressing.

This quick and easy salad is something I rustled up the other day for a vegetarian friend. Normally I would add a spoonful of pounded dried shrimps and season with fish sauce. Still the vegetarian version worked well.

There are six of us for dinner, two are vegetarians but eat fish. There is little time to nip over to the Sydney fish market nor start something elaborate. I settle on a rustic hearty vegetable curry with pumpkin, sweet potato, carrots and courgette. I stir in a couple of teaspoons of coconut cream to richen the sauce and tone down the chillies.

I have promised myself to cook a new dish every weekend. While I was looking through the long list in my notebook marked ‘Must try’, I receive an email from my mother. It is a gentle reminder of a recipe she told me about some months back.

This is a unique dish and as the name suggests you mix the salad with your hands. The fun of eating this salad is making it yourself. I like mine with a good squeeze of lime.

This salad is wonderfully intense, not only from the aromatic crispy garlic and fresh coriander, but also because the roasted eggplants give it a distinctive smoky flavour.