Pork Noodle Salad

Pork Noodle Salad
Serves 4

This is a really healthy, easy and delicious dish. It uses no oil at all, and plenty of fresh ingredients. I got the recipe from a recipe book called 'delicious noodles' from Woolworths, which my lovely mother in law gave me (no sarcasm intended here, she really is lovely!) You will need some slightly interesting items for this dish - most of which can be found at Woolies these days. If you don't come right, it's time to find your local Chinese supermarket! Mine is in Rivonia in the Wedge Centre, inside a Chinese restaurant. They have everything I could ever need, at reasonable prices, and since they are also a restaurant, they are open til late!

Ingredients:

Asian broth:
1 cup (250ml) Chicken stock
Handful of fresh coriander stalks
2 kaffir lime leaves (ideally fresh but I usually use the dried ones from my Chinese supermarket)
Thumb sized piece of ginger, sliced

Salad:
Pork mince (yes the recipe calls for pork mince, which is something you seldom see in our supermarkets, so I have always used stir fry pork, or pork fillet which can be cooked whole and sliced later. Chicken breasts also work very nicely)
250g exotic mushrooms (the recipe calls for "black fungus" which is something I have never seen sold. Even if it was, I'm not too sure it's something I would want to eat! So I use enoki, shimeji, or shiitake mushrooms, which I can usually find at pick n pay. Any mushrooms will do...)
100g dried rice vermicelli noodles
1 small red Chilli, seeded and finely sliced
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 spring onions
2 calves garlic, crushed, or 1 teaspoon minced
3 tablespoons lime juice (since limes ant easy to find, I use lime juice in a bottle from my Chinese store)
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons palm sugar (I usually just use brown sugar, but you can get palm at Woolies these days)
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2 fresh coriander leaves
Lettuce to serve - I like Cos or baby gem, but it's up to you
Cucumber, cut into half sites, to serve
Lime wedges to garnish
Long fresh red Chilli, seeded and cut into strips, to garnish
Extra coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

1. To make the Asian broth, place the stock, coriander stalks, lime leaves and ginger in a saucepan, simmer until the liquid has reduced to around 3/4 cup. Strain and return to the pan.
2. Slice the mushrooms thinly. Soak the rice vermicelli noodles in boiled water for around 6-7 minutes, or until soft. Drain and cut into 3cm lengths. Combine the noodles, mushrooms, Chilli, shallots, spring onion and garlic.
3. Add the mince, pork or chicken to the broth, and boil until cooked through. Drain and then add the vermicelli mixture.
4. Combine the lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and pepper and stir well. Add to the meat with the chopped coriander and mix well. Taste and add salt if necessary.
5. To assemble, tear the lettuce and arrange on a serving dish. Spoon the meat and noodle mixture over, followed by the cucumber, coriander and Chilli, with the lime wedges on the side.
6. I like to serve with soy sauce and sweet Chilli sauce on the side, in bowls with chopsticks.