Green Mango Salad

I was in Toronto last week. A most memorable dish was this salad at Happy Thai on West Queen West. (I was the only customer there for a late lunch, so needless to say the service was excellent as well.) I tried duplicating it at home, but my dressing just wasn't the same. It was good though! My recipe for two follows:

Salad

• Green (slightly hard) mango, sliced into fat matchsticks (one small or 1/2 large)
• 1/3 sweet red pepper, also sliced in thin strips
• some red onion, sliced a bit chunky
• crushed peanuts
• whole roasted cashews (ok to use salted)
• cilantro, some chopped fine and some for garnish
• cucumber and orange slice for garnish
• large piece of lettuce for the base
• optional: carrot, sliced into very fine matchsticks

Dressing

• juice of 1/2 lime, or to taste
• 1 tsp Thai fish sauce
• 1 tsp sugar dissolved in 2 tsp warm water
• 1/2 tsp spicy toasted sesame oil, or to taste, since this is the source of hot peppers
• 1 tsp pickapeppa (I wanted to get tamarind flavor in there somewhere, since I didn't have any in the house)

Arrange the salad ingredients on the plate, then whisk together the dressing and pour over.