Yam Woon Sen (Thai Glass Noodle Salad)

Ingredients

• 100 g glass noodles
• 200 g shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 150 g ground pork
• 2 celery stalk, sliced on the diagonal
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tomato, cut into wedges
• 4 tbsp fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
• 2 spring onion, cut into 3 cm lengths
• 4 tbsp lime juice
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 4 fresh chilli, finely chopped
• 4 garlic, peeled
• 40 g peanuts, roasted and roughly crushed

Method

1. 1.

   Soften the glass noodles — Cover the glass noodles with warm water and leave them for about 10 minutes, until they turn from brittle white to pliable grey. Drain them and cut through the tangle twice with scissors so they are easy to eat.

2. 2.

   Mix the lime dressing — Pound the garlic and chillies to a rough paste in a mortar, then stir in the lime juice, fish sauce and sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Taste it: sour should hit first, salty second, sweet only in the background.

3. 3.

   Poach the pork — Bring a small pan of water to a gentle simmer. Drop in the ground pork, breaking it up with a fork as it goes, and cook for two minutes until it has turned white all through, then lift it out with a slotted spoon.

4. 4.

   Poach shrimp and noodles — Poach the shrimp in the same water for 90 seconds, until they curl and turn opaque, and lift them out too. Finally boil the drained noodles in that water for one minute, then drain them and shake them as dry as you can.

5. 5.

   Toss while warm — While everything is still warm, tip the noodles, pork and shrimp into a large bowl and pour over the dressing. Toss thoroughly — warm noodles drink the dressing in, cold ones just sit in a puddle of it.

6. 6.

   Fold in the vegetables — Fold through the celery, red onion, tomato wedges and spring onions, taste once more and add lime juice if it has gone flat. Scatter with the cilantro and crushed peanuts and serve straight away, while the salad is barely warm.