Vietnamese Chicken and Cabbage Salad
Serves 6.
Ingredients
500 g/1 lb chicken thigh fillets
salt and pepper
1 small wong nga bak
2 medium onions
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons fish sauce
4 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon white vinegar
30 g/1 oz chopped mint or Vietnamese mint
30 g/1 oz chopped fresh coriander
Directions
Remove fat from chicken fillets. Put fillets in a saucepan with sufficient water to cover, add a little salt and pepper and bring to a slow simmer. Cover and cook until done, taking care not to overcook. Allow chicken to cool in liquid.
Halve the cabbage lengthways, and cut each half again lengthways. Wash in cold water, shake out all the water and place sections on a wooden board, cut surface down. Placing two halves together to make slicing quicker and, with a sharp knife, shred very finely. Put into a large bowl, cover and chill.
Peel onions, halve lengthways and slice very thinly crosswise. Sprinkle with salt in a bowl, working the salt well into the onion with fingers. Leave for 30 minutes before rinsing with water and squeezing out juices. Add half the sugar and mix.
In another bowl combine remaining sugar, fish sauce, lime juice and vinegar. Slice the cooled chicken into thin strips. Just before serving toss and mix chicken, cabbage, onion, dressing, mint and coriander.
Recipe excerpted from Encyclopedia of Asian Food by Charmaine Solomon (Periplus Editions, 1998)