Dressing

• In a small bowl, soak dried shrimp for ten minutes then drain and lightly crush using a mortar and pestle. Note, if you don’t have a mortar and pestle you can use a food processor or mince the ingredients by hand.

• Crush together garlic and Thai chili into small pieces using a mortar and pestle.

• Next add cilantro stems and continue crushing. Add palm sugar and mix until dissolved then add fish sauce, fresh lime juice and the lightly crushed, dried shrimp.

• Set the dressing aside until you’re ready to use.

Salad

• In a bowl, cover vermicelli with room temperature water 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.

• Julienne tomatoes into ½ inch thick slices, deseeding as you go.

• Cut the Chinese celery (leaves and stem) into ¾ inch sharp bias pieces.

• Put tomatoes and celery in large bowl – all of the ingredients will eventually be added to this bowl.

• Slice onions into ¼ inch thick pieces.

• Fill a medium size pot three quarters full of water and bring to a simmer. Add onions to simmering water and blanch for 1 minute. Scoop out softened onions and add to large bowl containing tomatoes and celery.

• The residual heat from the onions will begin to wilt and slightly cook the tomato and celery.

• Cut the vermicelli in half so noodles will not be too long. To heat the vermicelli, blanch the noodles for 10-15 seconds by quickly dipping in the water you cooked the onions in. After blanching, gently rinse the noodles in warm water to loosen them up. If the noodles get sticky add warm water. Add the vermicelli to the bowl with the other vegetables.

• Turn up the heat on the pot with the water to bring to a boil. Add the raw shrimp to the boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes (depending on size of shrimp) until shrimp are bright pink and cooked through. Add shrimp to the bowl with the other ingredients.

• Drain most of the water from the pot leaving just enough to cover the bottom. Add ground pork and a few dashes of fish sauce.

• Cook pork until fully browned. Add pork to the bowl with the other ingredients along with two tablespoons of the broth from the pot.

• Give the salad a toss then add the dressing and continue tossing to coat and mix ingredients. Just before serving, add cilantro, half the crushed peanuts and toss.

• To serve, add noodle salad to plate, garnish with a sprinkling of peanuts and cilantro on top.

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Eat and enjoy!