Noodle salad with duck

Things are how they should be in Asia, fresh seasonal produce is cheap and prepackaged foods are expensive. I bought all the ingredients for this dish at the local market for $3 (except the duck because at 37 degrees i was unsure about how safe this would be). Back home this salad would cost far more to make because for some reason the cost of wonderful fresh produce like herbs is ridiculous. That should not stop you making it though, cause its super yummy and fresh.

You could replace the duck with any kind of meat or with tofu. This is an adaption from a recipe for beef salad in the wonderful Vietnamese book Secrets of the Red Lantern.

Marinade for meat

1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 clove garlic, crushed

For the salad

1 cucumber, sliced in half and then into 2mm slices
3 red eshallots, halved and then thinly sliced
2 long red chillis, juliened
1 handful of mint leaves
1 handful of asian basil leaves
1 handful of corriander leaves
2 spring onions, green part only, sliced into 2 cm batons
2 kaffir lime leaves thinly sliced (to do this roll them up with the stem in the middle and then cut thinly across the roll on either side of the stem)
1 tbsp roasted rice powder ( to make this dry roast rice in a frypan until golden brown and then pound in a morter and pestle)
2 tbsp fried eshallots (can make your own but its fiddlly or buy from the asian grocer)
100g dry vermicelli noodles
2 duck breasts

For the dressing

45g (1/3 cup) grated palm sugar (leave this out to warm to room temp before use)
4 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp fish sauce
2tbsp soy sauce
1 cl garlic, crushed
1 tbsp sliced lemongrass, white only
1 small handful corriander leaves
2 tbsp olive oil

To prepare

Mix all marinade ingredients together and marinate duck, covered in the fridge for 2 hours. Turn duck every so often to ensure it marinates evenly.

Soak vermicelli noodles in hot water for at least 20 min, strain and dry with tea towel. Use kitchen scissors to cut into short lengths. Put into bowl with all other salad ingredients except peanuts and fried eshallots.

Mix all salad dressing ingredients in food processor (or very labour intensively with a morter and pestle). Cook duck either on BBQ or in frypan, skin side down first until it is cooked to your liking, about 10 min to ensure its not pink. Let it rest for 5 monutes and then finely slice each breat into 5mm thick slices. Add to the salad mix along with dressing and toss well. Add the peanuts and fried eshalots to the top and wahala, you have yourself a damm impressive tasty salad.

A Family Affair

I call this an old family recipe because it has such a personal history and so many stories that surround it, such as: when it almost blinded my Burmese-Italian cousin: “Darshan, I’m blind….IM BLIND!!”, or when it almost helped my sister lose her first boyfriend [we hoped], or when my dad [Pa], true master of the recipe, woke up the morning after the very same sister’s wedding to find a trail of rose petals leading from his bedroom directly to the szechuan chicken recipe [hint hint!].

But as experts in Chinese geography might have guessed, and as you can see from the scan below, the recipe is not Sri Lankan. Its ripped from Charmaine Solomon’s Asian Cookbook [a must have] and I still follow her pretty much to the letter. It may look slack [and sorry about the sm. type] but I’ve included a scanned version of our original family copy below to show the amount of use it has had over the years [notice the ‘tick’ up the top which must have been the first time Pa chose to cook it].


A word in favour of deep-frying: This is not a cooking technique to be derided or looked down on but a fine art of precision, texture and fish & chip shop sound effects. A few of the other contributors to Family Pies are responsible for purchasing my deep-fryer and well, its been a hot, crispy, slightly salty, 3rd degree burning love affair ever since. In short: don’t try shallow frying this chicken – Pa and Charmaine just won’t have it.

WARNING: Szechuan chicken is extremely tasty before you put it in the sauce [kinda like KFC] and will be snapped up by any kitchen hangers in the vicinity. It is also one of those slow-melding, burning dishes that pack extra punch and flavour on day two: often devoured with toast or in a Brewell in front of the Sega Mega Drive. So make extra – perhaps triple the current recipe?

Ban Keun Soup

When I first moved to Laos I lived for a year in Ban Keun. My kitchen was fashioned from a concrete shell of a room with old school tables for benches. There was no glass on the windows and I used to wipe the red dust from the surfaces daily. I had no sink, cupboards or stove - just a bucket of water, an electric frypan and a few bowls and spoons. To put it quite simply, it was uninspiring. But it was from here that Ban Keun Soup was created.

Essentially a one-pot dish created from whatever fresh ingredients you can get your hands on, plus some longlife staples such as miso paste, canned tuna and eggs, Ban Keun soup for me is now one of the most soothing, simple, healthy things I can think of. It is Monday night food!

Serves 2
1 brown onion - sliced
1 small piece of ginger - diced small
1 japanese eggplant - halved longwise and sliced

handful of oyster (or other) mushrooms - sliced

1 small green cabbage (or chinese cabbage - wong buk) - sliced
1 small bunch morning glory - cut into thirds
1 medium sized can of tuna
2 tbsp miso paste (shiro or the light brown one)
2 tbsp soy sauce (yellow boy brand is best)
1.5 tbsp white vinegar
3 cups water
1 egg
2tbsp fried red shallots (pre bought is far easier) (to serve)
chilli paste or sauce ( to serve)

Fry onions in a small amount of oil in a wok or deep based saucepan till transparent. Add ginger, eggplant and mushrooms and fry for about 3 min, until the eggplant is a bit soft.

Add water (it will pleasantly sizzle!) miso, soy and vinegar and bring to boil. Add tuna. Taste for flavour, adding more miso, soy or vinegar if necessary. Turn heat down to a simmer and add vegies. Cook for another 1-2 min. Break egg into liquid and stir a little. Cook for another minute or so and you're done.

Serve with a spoon of deep fried shallots and some chilli sauce.

* this version had tomato too....flexibility is the key!