The recipe comes from Sydney-based Kime’s cookbook Thai Food Made Easy, which includes advice for building a pantry of essential Thai ingredients and making your own pastes and marinades, as well as recipes for classic dishes such as Pad Thai, Coconut Fish Curry and Thai Fishcakes.

You can make your own sweet chilli sauce with the recipe at the bottom.

Asian Noodle Salad with Roast Duck & Sesame Seeds

Serves 6 (makes 24)

Soaking: 10 minutes
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 5 minutes

Ingredients

Recipe and image from Thai Food Made Easy, by Tom Kime (Murdoch Books, $39.99).

Fresh:
4cm piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce (see below)
Juice of 2 limes
1 cucumber, halved lengthways, seeded, then cut into diagonal strips
3 spring onions, thinly sliced
3 basil sprigs, leaves picked
3 coriander sprigs, leaves picked
½ an aromatic roast duck (available from a Chinese restaurant or some supermarkets), shredded

Spices:
Freshly ground black pepper

Pantry/larder:
Salt
300g thin glass noodles (wa sun noodles) or rice noodles
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon blended sesame oil
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

Method

Soak the noodles in a bowl of cold water for 10 minutes to soften. Drain, then put the noodles in a saucepan of lightly salted boiling water and cook for about 4 minutes until al dente. Strain, then run under cold water to refresh them.

Make a dressing by mixing the ginger, sweet chilli sauce, lime juice, soy sauce and sesame oil together in a bowl.

Mix the noodles, cucumber and spring onions and add a little salt and lots of black pepper.

When ready to serve, tear the herbs into the noodles and mix together. Sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds. Taste the noodles to check the balance of flavours and adjust if needed. Drizzle with the dressing and serve the noodle salad with the roast duck.

Sweet chilli sauce

Chilli releases endorphins and is addictive, so the more you eat, the better you feel and the more you crave. A good sweet chilli sauce should have a balance of hot, sweet, salt and sour. You could make a large quantity, put it in sterilised jars and give them as gifts at Christmas. Chilli jams or relishes are the perfect partner to many Thai dishes.

Serves 4–6

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 12 minutes

Ingredients

Fresh:
200g red chillies, seeded
4cm piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated
4 garlic cloves

Pantry/larder:
200g caster sugar
1 tablespoon salt
100g rice vinegar

Method

Put the red chillies, ginger and garlic in a food processor or blender and blitz to a chunky paste.

Put the sugar, salt, vinegar and 100 ml of water in a large heavy-based saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the blended mixture and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Pour into a sterilised jar and store for up to  2–3 weeks in the refrigerator.