Thai noodle salad

Andy's favorite cooking blog: the WSJ.  This didn't really strike me as a salad, more just a cold summer pasta dish.  It was really good though.  I think it would be good with any kind of noodle if you don't feel like buying rice noodles, but they were light and worked well.

We substituted rock shrimp for the chicken, and only used 3/4 lb.  I think regular shrimp or some kind of firmer fish would work just as well and I think it was a definite improvement from chicken which may have been a bit heavy for this.

Ingredients:
Sauce --
1/4 cup fish sauce
Juice of 1 lime
Arbol or other small red dried chili, chopped
Small mild fresh chili, chopped

Noodles --
1 package of rice noodles (8 oz ish, my package of noodles was a little more than this)
3/4 lb shrimp
1 shallot, chopped
Small cucumber, sliced
1 carton cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped mint
1/2 cup chopped basil or Thai basil if you can find it (I've only ever been able to find it in Chinatown)

Directions:
Saute the shrimp and stick them in the fridge to cool off.

Cook the rice noodles in salted water until al-dente.  Al dente is important because rice noodles get really slimy and you want them to be able to absorb some of the taste of the sauce.  Run them under cold water, tossing, to make sure they stop cooking, until they are all cold-ish.

For the sauce, put it all in a cup and use your stick blender to puree. 

Combine everything and toss.  Serve!

http://www.wsj.com/articles/kin-khaos-recipe-for-thai-chicken-and-rice-noodle-salad-1435250966