Lemongrass Salad with Chinese Sausage and Mango

This is one of the most flavorful salads you’ll ever make, with the aromatic, citrusy lemongrass front and center, accenting sweet and tart fruit and chewy pork sausage. Pelaccio makes his own sausage, but the dry, slightly sweet sausages available at Chinese markets are terrific too. He also prepares this salad with pineapple in place of the mango used below.

Ingredients

1. 3/4 pound Chinese sausage
2. 3 stalks of fresh lemongrass, first 2 layers peeled off and bottom 6 inches very thinly sliced
3. 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
4. 1 shallot, thinly sliced
5. 1 red Thai chile, thinly sliced
6. 1 green Thai chile, thinly sliced
7. 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
8. 3 tablespoons soy sauce
9. 2 tablespoons finely julienned fresh ginger
10. 2 tablespoons gula Jawa or dark brown sugar
11. 1 teaspoon canola oil
12. 1/2 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
13. 1 large, slightly underripe mango, peeled and cut into 2-by- 1/4-inch matchsticks (2 cups)
14. 1 bunch watercress, coarsely chopped
15. 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Directions

1. Put the sausage in a steamer basket and steam over boiling water until plump, about 15 minutes. Let cool slightly and pat dry, then slice thinly.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, toss the sliced lemongrass with the garlic, shallot, chiles, lime juice, soy sauce, ginger, gula Jawa, canola oil and sesame oil, tossing until the gula is dissolved.
3. Add the Chinese sausage, mango, watercress and cilantro to the dressing in the bowl and toss well. Serve the salad warm or at room temperature.