CUCUMBER AND SHRIMP SALAD

Steps:

• To make the dressing, in a small bowl, combine the lime juice, sugar, fish sauce, water, and chiles and stir to dissolve the sugar. Set aside to develop the flavors.
• Trim off the ends of each cucumber, and then halve lengthwise. Use a teaspoon to remove the seeds from each half (the English cucumbers will have few seeds). Cut the halves crosswise into slices a scant 1/8 inch thick. A razor-sharp knife or a Japanese Benriner slicer (page 22) produces the most attractive, uniformly thin slices. A food processor can be used but will yield less satisfactory results. Put the cucumbers and carrot in a large bowl, add 1 1/2 teaspoons of the salt and the sugar, and toss to mix. Set aside for 30 minutes to weep. A pool of juice will accumulate at the bottom of the bowl.
• Drain the cucumbers and carrot in a colander and place under cold running water to rinse off as much salt and sugar as possible. Working in batches, wring out excess moisture in a nonterry dish towel: position a mound of the vegetables in the center, roll it up in the towel, and then twist the ends in opposite directions to force out the liquid. Do this 3 or 4 times. You want to extract enough water from the cucumber yet not completely crush it. (The cucumber will become a beautiful translucent green, in marked contrast to the color of the carrot.) Return the vegetables to the bowl and fluff them up to release them from their cramped state. Set aside.
• Trim any excess fat from the pork chop. Fill a small saucepan half full with water, add the remaining 1 teaspoon salt, and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Drop in the chicken breast and pork chop. When the water starts bubbling at the edges of the pan, remove the pan from the heat and cover tightly. Let stand for 20 minutes. The pork and chicken should be firm yet still yield a bit to the touch. Remove them from the pan. Reserve the light stock for another use or discard. When the pork and chicken are cool enough to handle, cut the pork into matchsticks, and shred the chicken with your fingers into thin pieces, pulling the meat along its natural grain. Let the pork and chicken continue to cool to room temperature and then add them to the vegetables.
• Place the shrimp in a colander and rinse with cold running water, then press gently to drain well. Add the shrimp to the bowl of vegetables and meat.
• Just before serving, add the peanuts and sesame seeds to the salad and toss to distribute evenly. Pour on the dressing and toss again. (If you don't want to bite into a piece of chile unexpectedly, strain the dressing over the salad.) Taste and adjust the flavors to your liking, balancing the sour, sweet, salty, and spicy. Transfer to a serving plate, leaving any unabsorbed dressing behind, and serve.
• notes
• You may ready the vegetables, pork and chicken, and shrimp a day in advance. Keep them in separate covered containers in the refrigerator, and return them to room temperature before tossing the salad. The dressing may be prepared several hours in advance.
• For a lighter salad, omit the pork and/or chicken and double the amount of shrimp. Or, you may eliminate the shrimp and add more pork or chicken. Whatever you decide, include at least one of these elements, as they lend richness to the salad.
• Special-Occassion Salads
• If you ask the cook, "What's on today's menu?" and the response includes a gôi or nôm, you know it is a special occasion. Gôi and nôm typically refer to colorful salads of meat, seafood, vegetables, herbs, peanuts, and sesame seeds usually served as a separate first course, instead of a side dish. Both words refer to the same type of dish, with gôi the everyday term in southern and central Vietnam and nôm in the north.
• These salads represent a careful balancing act among different flavors, colors, and textures, and a skilled Vietnamese cook runs through a mental checklist to make sure all three bases have been covered. One ingredient-vegetable, fruit, meat, fish, shellfish-usually makes up the bulk in the salad. If it naturally carries a lot of moisture, the first task is to expel the excess water, so that the ingredient will be relatively dry and crunchy. For example, cucumber and green papaya are tossed with salt and sugar to release their water and are then wrung out in a kitchen towel. Tiny raw silverfish are cooked and then drained. (Green cabbage is an exception, since it already has plenty of crunchiness and is not naturally moist.) Then the magic happens. When everything is combined, the main ingredient absorbs all of the other flavors like a sponge.
• Vietnamese food aficionados may tell you that gôi comes in more complex guises, built from exotic ingredients such as raw fish and sauces made from fish innards and astringent bananas, than you will find in this chapter. They are right, but it is these simpler salads that regularly appear on most Vietnamese tables.