GLASS NOODLE SALAD (yam wun sen) - ebook
Now this is more like it. I’ll admit straight up, that yam wun sen is one of my favorite Thai dishes. And restaurant versions tend to be disappointing, so it is really a good one to make at home. In recent years, I’ve looked at (but not strictly followed) Andy Ricker’s version, which he credits to his friend Sunny, and which is a very busy version. One problem a lot of versions of this have (for my purposes) is that they don’t have enough noodles. Ricker’s version has that problem, as do many restaurant versions. I don’t want to eat this as a side salad or appetizer, I want to eat it as a meal, especially for lunch. But that’s just me. Ricker uses 1.25 oz of dried glass noodles for a dish that serves “2 to 6 as part of a meal”. I double the noodles in his recipe, up the dressing, but keep all the add-ins the same (except I don’t use the same add-ins, exactly).
This recipe uses 2 oz of noodles to serve 4. I used 2 1/2 oz (I would be serving 2, but as a stand alone dish). While the noodles soak, you also rehydrate dried wood ears. I sometimes include fresh mushrooms in my yam wun sen, but never wood ears, so that was a new twist for me. Dried shrimp are optional, and I didn’t use them, but if you were, you would also be soaking them at this time. This recipe calls for ground pork that is cooked with some water. I used minced tempeh, and a different cooking technique. I sautéed the tempeh until browned, then added fish sauce (vegan “fish sauce”) and a bit of water, and let that cook down. This recipe also calls for fresh shrimp, which are briefly boiled after the noodles. I used a vegan ham that I get from the Asian market. I cube it, then pan-fry and add just a hint of sugar to get some caramelization on it. I started using this because Ricker calls for Vietnamese pork roll in his salad, and this was my work-around after I went vegan, and quite frankly it’s delicious. So I made that. The dressing is lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, fresh Thai chiles, and ground chiles. It is whisked together in a bowl large enough to hold the whole salad. The soaked noodles are briefly boiled then removed with a skimmer and added to the dressing. The noodles will go from undercooked to overcooked in a second - you really need to be on top of this. This recipe has you boil the sliced, rehydrated wood ears along with the noodles. If you are using the fresh shrimp, you would boil it next, then add it to the big bowl. Then toss in shallots, pork (and for me the ham as well), tomato wedges, and celery leaves. Adjust seasoning (I added a bit more lime and more fish sauce). Garnish with the dried shrimp (I didn’t use) and roasted peanuts. I also reserved some celery leaves for the garnish and added some cilantro.
I had a little problem with the noodles sticking together, so I added just a tiny bit of oil to the salad before tossing everything together. Ricker’s version calls for shallot oil - not much, but just enough to avoid that problem. I would include it in the future I’ve found the best way to get everything incorporated is to just get down and dirty and use your hands. There were some things in Ricker’s recipe I missed in this one. He uses some pickled garlic, and some juice from the pickled garlic as part of the acid in the dressing. My version of this dish came out quite hot, because I used hot ground chiles. This dish should have a kick to it, but I usually just use fresh chiles and not ground. We both really liked this at Casa de Mel. I can’t say it’s the best version I’ve made, but I will take away elements of it that will influence future versions.
