First make your dressing by combining the fish sauce, freshly squeezed lime juice, palm sugar, and finely chopped garlic and bird’s eye chillies in a dish and set aside. Taste and adjust to your liking. It should be balanced. Too sour? Add more sugar. Too sweet? Add a little more lime juice or fish sauce. Too hot? Nothing you can do, sorry. Start again and skip the chillies. Best to begin with one birds eye chilli, taste, then gradually add more. You may also want to remove the tiny white seeds – with gloves.

Soak your dried shrimps in a small dish of drinking water.

Prep your smoked dried fish (pictured above) by pulling off the heads, tails, fins, and spine, and then pounding the remains of the fish in a granite mortar and pestle. You’ll find that any fine bones that are left rise to the surface and you can pull those out. The textured dried fish left in the bottom of the mortar is what you’ll want to add to your salad. Run your finger through it to make sure there are no tiny bones in there then set aside.

Prep your fruit and vegetables, grating or julienning your green mango, cucumber, shallots, and optional carrot and throw it all into a big bowl. Note that julienning will result in a crunchier salad, while grating will result in a softer texture. A combination will give you something in between.

Wash and gently pat dry your ‘chi’ or fresh fragrant herbs – basil, mint and coriander are perfect. Pluck the leaves from the stalks and set aside.

Drain your dried shrimps then throw half into a big salad bowl with the fresh fruit and vegetables, dressing, smoked dried fish, and half of the herbs and peanuts – set the rest aside for garnish – and combine everything gently using gloved hands.

Pile the salad onto a large serving plate or distribute across smaller bowls, then garnish with the remaining fresh herbs, dried shrimps, and peanuts, and serve immediately.