Thai Glass Noodle Salad (Yum Woon Sen)

Ingredients

• 5 1/4 ozglass noodles, also sold as bean thread or mung bean noodles
• 8 ozground pork
• 3 tbspwater
• 12 ozshrimp, medium, peeled and deveined
• 3 clovegarlic, peeled
• 3Thai chilies, stems removed; use 1 for a milder salad
• 1/3 cuplime juice, from about 3 limes
• 1/4 cupfish sauce, most brands are gluten-free; check the label if you need it to be
• 2 tbspsugar, or finely chopped palm sugar
• 1onion, small, white or yellow, thinly sliced
• 2 stalkscelery, thinly sliced on an angle, leaves and all; Chinese celery if you can find it
• 12cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cupcilantro, leaves and tender stems, roughly chopped
• 2scallions, thinly sliced

Method

1. 1

   Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the shrimp and noodles. Meanwhile, put the glass noodles in a bowl, cover them with warm tap water and soak them for 10 minutes, until soft and bendy.

2. 2

   While the noodles soak, pound the garlic and chilies to a rough paste with a mortar and pestle, or chop them together very finely. Stir in the lime juice, fish sauce and sugar until the sugar dissolves. It should taste sour, salty, sweet and hot all at once.

3. 3

   Put the pork and the 3 tbsp of water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir, breaking the pork into small crumbles, until no pink remains and it reaches 160°F, about 4 minutes, then tip it, juices and all, into a large mixing bowl.

4. 4

   Drop the shrimp into the boiling water and cook until pink and opaque all the way through, about 2 minutes. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and add them to the pork.

5. 5

   Drain the soaked noodles, add them to the same boiling water and cook for 1 minute, until clear and springy. Drain them well and snip them into shorter lengths with kitchen scissors, right in the colander.

6. 6

   Add the warm noodles to the bowl, pour the dressing over and toss so they soak it up. Add the onion, celery and tomatoes and toss again.

7. 7

   Taste and adjust it: more lime for sour, a splash of fish sauce for saltiness, a pinch of sugar for sweet. Scatter the cilantro and scallions over and serve right away, while the noodles are still a little warm.