Poach the chicken breasts until they are cooked through, being careful not to over-cook them (use a thermometer), then set them aside to cool down.

Combine the finely chopped garlic, chillies, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar in a bowl to make the salad dressing. It should be balanced, so taste it and adjust if necessary. The chillies should give it a little bite but not dominate, so go easy even if you like your food spicy. Set aside.

Shred the chicken with your hands into two-bite sized pieces.

Julienne your carrots, slice the shallots, blanch the bean sprouts, and wash and dry your herbs and pluck the leaves from stems, and set aside.

Fill a large bowl, big enough to hold the banana flower with drinking quality water and add the juice of lime/lemon.

Pull off and discard the thick purple outer layers of the banana flower, keeping 2-4 of the prettiest petals to serve the salad in, as pictured above. Discard the tiny undeveloped bananas between the petals. Don’t attempt to taste these; they are very unpleasant. Once you reach the cream coloured petals, cut the banana flower in half lengthways, place one half in the water immediately, ensuring it’s fully submerged, before it starts to discolour. You need to work fast as it will go brown and then black quite quickly. Remove and discard the hard core then quickly slice the creamy leaves thinly, adding them to the water as you go, ensuring they’re submerged. Then do the same with the other half of the banana flower.

Gently combine everything together with gloved hands in a salad bowl, including half of the fresh herbs and half of the peanuts, adding the banana flower last. Add half of your dressing initially – you just want enough dressing to cover everything – then combine again, adding more dressing if needed. This should not be a wet salad.

Arrange your salad in the banana flower petals, garnish with the rest of the peanuts and fresh herbs, and then serve immediately.