JUST A SIMPLE GLASS NOODLE SALAD.

Because life's complicated enough, right.

The hardest thing about this lovely, juicy, fresh, clean-tasting Thai-inspired salad is taking the noodles out of the packet.

I’m serious. It’s not easy. They’re like skeins of really tough fishing lines that need to be forced apart or cut. If you have any sense, you’ll just soak the whole packet, and live off noodles for a day or two. No hardship.  Or look for the little 100g packs instead of the big 250 gram packs, and problem solved.

Glass noodles also identify as cellophane noodles, mung bean noodles, bean vermicelli or beanthread noodles. They’re skinny, slippery, glossy, gluten-free and rather beautiful to eat, without weighing you down.

Most recipes will advise you to snip the noodles with scissors once they are soaked, but I’m not convinced; they’re rather nice kept long and tangled around the other ingredients.  When you raise them from the bowl to your mouth they should pull other things along with them. It’s like having your hair cut too short: once it’s done, there’s no going back.

Make this with the smoky richness of hot-smoked trout to turn it into a meal, or drop the trout and serve it as a salad with anything you like: spring rolls, grilled meats, prawns, satay chicken, fried fish. Just keep it simple, and the flavours will shine.

GLASS NOODLE SALAD WITH SMOKED TROUT

• 100 g glass noodles (more, if hungry)

• 1 hot-smoked trout (you probably won’t use it all, save for lunch)

• Half red onion, or 3 red shallots, finely sliced

• 3 small tomatoes, quartered

• 2 baby cucumbers (Qukes) or part large cucumber, sliced

• 2 spring onions, finely sliced

• Good handful of picked coriander leaves

Dressing:

• 2 tbsp fish sauce

• 2 tbsp lime juice

• Half red chilli, finely sliced (optional)

• 1 garlic clove, grated

• 2 tsp castor sugar

• Pinch of sea salt

Place noodles in a heatproof bowl and pour boiling water over to cover. Leave for 3 to 4 minutes until pliable and no longer tough to the bite, then drain, rinse in cold water and drain again.

Peel the skin from the trout and pull away the flesh, discarding the bones and skin. (Okay, it’s easier to do this if it’s warmed in the oven first for 10 minutes, but that’s still not exactly cooking, is it?)

Flake the trout and set aside.

Whisk the dressing ingredients in a large bowl, throw in the red onion and leave to macerate for 5 minutes.

Add the noodles and toss well.

Add the smoked trout, tomato, cucumber, spring onions and coriander leaves and toss well.

That’s it, done. Serve with extra lime quarters for squeezing. Serves two.

YOU MIGHT CARE TO ADD:

• Fried garlic or crisp-fried shallots

• Palm sugar and tamarind instead of caster sugar and lime juice. What you lose in fresh-and-clean, you gain in down-and-dirty. In fact, if you want real down-and-dirty, smash some of the coriander roots in a mortar with chopped chilli, garlic, sugar and sea salt and use that as a base for the dressing, woo hoo.

• Chinese celery for crispness, mmm.

• A scattering of crushed, salted peanuts or beer nuts. I was going to, but forgot.

Skip the smoked trout and serve the noodle salad with…whatever you like.

Thanks for dropping by! And special thanks to Terry Durack, for writing a very beautiful and very helpful book on noodles, called Noodle. It’s very cool to know I can just pluck his book from the shelf and find the answer to all my noodly questions.

I would also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I fully support the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to be enshrined in Australia’s Constitution. It’s about time, folks.