Vietnamese Cold Noodle Salad

This is yummy on a scorching hot day but you do need to enjoy chopping or have some kind of device that juliennes the vegetables for you easily. Otherwise, you might go stir crazy cutting matchstick size slices!

This comes from our faithful book Blue Ginger by Les Huyh although we added the chicken to his vegetarian salad which we love. The dressing is amazing, so we always make extra and fire up the heat with an extra chilli or two.

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We were pleasantly pleased to see Bill Granger doing an incredibly similar recipe on Saturday Morning Kitchen. Pure coincidence but we decided to try the wine recommendation as we spotted in Sainsbury’s later that week. It was very drinkable and reminded us of Sauvignon Blanc.We thought it would have gone better with prawns or oysters rather than chicken but what do we know?!

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Ingredients:

Nuoc Cham -
2 long red chillies
1 garlic clove
2 tablespoons sugar (we use palm sugar)
Juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon vinegar

Salad -

2 Portions of rice noodles

2 carrots

1 cucumber

¼ iceburg lettuce (optional)

1 handful of mint leaves

Left over chicken, shredded

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Method:

First make the Nuoc Cham. Pound the chillies and garlic into a paste with a pestle and mortar (or use a small food processor. Add the sugar, lime juice, fish sauce and vinegar with 2 tablespoons of water. Stir well until the sugar dissolves.

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Now cook the noodles. Boil the kettle, place the noodles in a large bowl, and then cover the noodles with boiling water for about 10 minutes or until they are soft. Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables. Julienne the carrots and cucumber and finely shred the lettuce.

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Mix together the vegetables, mint, chicken, noodles and Nuoc Cham. Serve.

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Wine: Sainsburys TDD Albarino Rias Baixas 2009