Corn and cucumber pounded salad

Boil the ear of corn in a big pot of water at a full boil for 6 minutes; sprinkle with a little salt and cool completely.

Slice off the kernels in big pieces, since tossing breaks them up further.

Halve the cucumber, remove the seeds for stability, and cut into juliennes.

Cut the Roma tomato into bias wedges, turning as you cut, for bite-sized pieces.

Crack the salted duck egg and cut in half through the shell. Scoop out one half and cut into chunks; take the other half out whole and cut into wedges for the top.

In a large mortar with a light wooden pestle, pound the garlic and chilies until no chunks remain.

Add the palm sugar and pound to a wet paste; it need not dissolve completely.

Add the long beans and dried shrimp; crush lightly so the beans break and absorb the dressing.

Add fish sauce and 3 tbsp lime juice, and throw the cut-up lime rind into the mortar.

Add the tomatoes and crush very gently so their juice joins the dressing.

Add the corn and cucumber; toss with a spoon, breaking the corn into smaller attached chunks.

Taste: keep the dressing not too sweet since the corn is sweet, and light on fish sauce because of the salted eggs. Toss in the salted egg chunks.

Plate and place the salted egg wedges gently on top.