Sour Rice Salad

Dressing

 * ½ tbsp dried shrimp, soaked for 30 minutes in hot water, then drained and squeezed dry.
 * ½" square piece of belacan, toasted under the grill until light brown and fragrant
 * 2 ounces cherry tomatoes -- or a wedge of a larger tomato
 * 3 tbsp kalamansi juice (½ tbsp orange juice and 2½ tbsp lime juice)
 * 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
 * ½ - 1 tbsp fish sauce
 * 3 oz shallots, roughly chopped
 * fresh chili peppers to taste, sliced and seeds removed if you wish
 * freshly ground black pepper

Salad

 * 1 ginger flower, very thinly sliced
 * small bunch each (about 1 ounce) cilantro (keep stems), mint, and holy basil
 * 2 sprigs of daun kesom
 * 2 stalks lemongrass, bottom 3 inches only
 * 3 fresh kaffir lime leaves, stacked, rolled like a cigar, and thinly sliced
 * 8-10 sour spinach leaves, or double the amount sturdy sorrel leaves, sliced as the kaffir lime leaves
 * 2-4 plump shallots
 * 2 cups cooked rice at room temperature

Directions

 * 1) Thinly slice the shallots from the salad ingredients list and drop them in a small pan of vegetable oil heated to medium.
 * 2) Fry till light brown—careful here, they'll go from golden to overdone in the blink of an eye—remove from the pan, and drain on paper towel.
 * 3) Set aside.
 * 4) Make the dressing: in a mortar and pestle, pound the shrimp to a pulp.
 * 5) Add and pound together the shallots, garlic, and chile peppers, if using.
 * 6) Add the belacan and pound it as well, then the tomatoes/tomato wedge.
 * 7) Mix in lime juice, and add the fish sauce, ½ tbsp at a time; taste dressing after the first ½ tbsp, you may not want to add the other.
 * 8) Add black pepper to taste and try the dressing again—more kalamansi juice will be in order if your tomatoes were exceptionally sweet, or if you're after a real pucker.
 * 9) Pick leaves from mint and basil sprigs, and chop these very finely together with the coriander.
 * 10) Pick the leaves from the daun kesom stem and chop a bit less finely.
 * 11) Remove the hard outer layers from the lemongrass stalks, quarter them lengthwise, and slice thinly.
 * 12) Mix rice and dressing, then add torch ginger, coriander-mint-basil, daun kesom, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, and sour spinach or sorrel and mix again.
 * 13) Allow the rice to stand and absorb the flavors of the herbs and the dressing for about ½ hour.
 * 14) Serve topped with fried shallots.