I’m playing a game of Telephone with a Thai-style Chinese sausage salad.
Yep, last week I borrowed a recipe from Gastronomy who took it the week before from Eating Asia who in turn stole it from themselves 20 years earlier. Crazy sausage technology.
A fortuitous junction of ingredients and circumstances drew me to this particular dish. First, I happen to have some incredible lap cheung from a recent trip to San Francisco. The partially dried, wizened little tubes of sweet, fatty pork bits are a new obsession of mine. Any novel ways to cook them up gets my attention.
After.
I’ve also been hording a small bottle of the best fish sauce I’ve ever had, from our last outing in Vietnam. In the back of a Saigon market, a tiny, 132 year old lady (I’m guessing here) pressed the thick, bubbled-glass bottle into my hands with a huge smile and a quick hug. I felt like I had adopted a child. It’s been part of my secret kitchen arsenal ever since but I like to have inspirational dishes to use it with.
Finally, as the other blogs mention, this is a good hot weather dish. Since it is currently 132 degrees (I’m not guessing) here in Austin, I was immediately interested.
This salad is the perfect blend of sweet, sour, spicy, and salty. It’s also quick, easy and super satisfying. Don’t get too bogged down in the details though. All of the proportions are really just recommendations. (Find the full recipe here or here.)
Before.
Since I was just cooking for me and the wifey, I only used one cucumber and a couple of sausages. You can scale it up or down really easily.
I also made some ingredient substitutions. I used dried arbol chilies and a Hungarian hot wax pepper for the heat. Not traditional, but tasty. I also used some palm sugar instead of white sugar for a little more caramely depth.
Man this was good. It really showed off the lap cheung but I couldn’t help but think that any number of other items would work great as well. If you don’t have sausage you could just as easily use some strips of steak or pork, or even serve it with some grilled fish. Mmm.
Thanks Cathy, Robyn, and David!
-Logan
I'm working on making this salad soon. I have not stopped thinking about it since I saw your post. Oh how I miss Thailand. Thank you for the post. Next trip to the Asian market has a definite goal.
Posted by: Jam Sanitchat | Sunday, 07 June 2009 at 22:37
I too saw the recipe at those two other blogs before happening upon it here too! Definitely gonna make it - there's a new packet of Chinese sausage in my fridge!
Posted by: Su-Lin | Monday, 08 June 2009 at 05:14
Saw this on Eating Asia a while back - I was whinging about my oven-like kitchen too! Other suggestions for the salad - chargrilled squid, shrimp, very thin slices of pork belly - or pieces of pork cracklings... :p
Posted by: Ling | Monday, 08 June 2009 at 08:40
Jam- I'd be very curious as to how it turns out.
Su-Lin, Score! Some recipes are just meant to be.
Ling-Damn. The pork cracklings idea has got me entirely too excited. That sounds awesome!
Posted by: Logan @ Boots in the Oven | Monday, 08 June 2009 at 12:24
I'm happy to hear that you guys enjoyed this salad as much as I did. It's so simple to make and gives a lot in the flavor department.
Posted by: Gastronomer | Monday, 08 June 2009 at 12:55
Thanks for letting us steal it, Cathy! I was following Logan around for days whispering "sausage salad? sausage salad?" It seems to have worked...
Posted by: Rachel @ Boots in the Oven | Monday, 08 June 2009 at 18:20
Wow now that is impressive. and your title made me laugh out loud.
Posted by: Cara | Monday, 08 June 2009 at 22:38
Cara- But it's so true.
Posted by: Logan @ Boots in the Oven | Thursday, 11 June 2009 at 14:49