Chicken and lemongrass salad (yum gai)

Ingredients

• 400 g chicken breast fillet
• 2 cups (500 ml) water
• vegetable oil, for deep-frying
• 120 g unsalted cashews
• 2 spring onions, julienned
• ¾ stick lemongrass, very thinly sliced
• 2 × 4 cm pieces ginger, julienned
• 4 large fresh red chillies, julienned
• 20 g (1 small bunch) coriander leaves
• 3 large cloves garlic, crushed
• 5 red birds-eye chillies, crushed
• 2½ tbsp soft palm sugar
• ⅓ cup (80 ml) fish sauce
• ¼ cup (60 ml) lime juice