Ric Orlando's Vietnamese Salad
This salad won Best of Show Award at the 1997 Kingston
Hospital Foundation Cuisine Classic. It's a refreshingly crunchy blend of
sprouts and greens in a slightly sour dressing. It is reminiscent of a great
little side dish Liz and I ate at the Vietnam Restaurant (creative name, huh?)
, a little storefront place at the edge of the Combat Zone in Boston. They put
lanky sprigs of mint and cilantro in with iceberg (yes, iceberg) lettuce,
carrots, scallions and radishes. They actually managed to make iceberg lettuce
hip!
Serve this salad with chopsticks thrust in, ready for use.
It's also very spectacular topped with grilled shrimp.
Serves 4
For the Salad:
2 cups Savoy or green cabbage, thinly sliced (you can
substitute iceberg lettuce, really!)
1 cup mesclun greens 1/2 cup carrot,
grated
1/2 cup daikon radish, grated
1/2 cup scallion greens, cut on
a long, narrow bias
2 cups mung bean sprouts
1 cup pea, broccoli or
radish sprouts
1/2 cup chopped peanuts (unsalted, roasted)
12
medium-size basil leaves, torn into pieces
6 tender spearmint tops, torn
into pieces
4 medium cilantro sprigs, torn into pieces
For the Sweet and Sour Rice Vinaigrette:
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
2
tablespoons tamarind paste (see Note)
1/2 cup peanut oil
1/4 cup Thai
or Vietnamese fish sauce
1/2 cup white sesame seeds
Toss the salad ingredients together in a large bowl and keep
the mixture cold.
To make the vinaigrette, combine the vinegar with 2
tablespoons warm water. Dissolve the sugar and tamarind in the vinegar-water
mixture.
Whisk in the oil, fish sauce and sesame seeds.
Shortly before
serving, pour the vinaigrette over the salad and toss gently. Let the mixture
stand in a nonreactive bowl for 5-10 minutes.
Note: Tamarind concentrate paste is available at many Asian
markets. Tamarind pulp, which contains seeds and skins, cannot be substituted
for tamarind paste without considerable preparation.
