Lao Style Cucumber Salad

Chef #1471265's Note:

This is a Lao Style Cucumber Salad Recipe. With this recipe, you can interchange the cucumber with green papaya or long beans (sectioned). This dish goes great with grilled meat and sticky rice. Hope you enjoy.

• Total Time: 7 mins
• Prep Time: 4 mins
• Cook Time: 3 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 2

• 1 large cucumber
• 5 -8 cherry tomatoes
• 2 lime wedges
• 5 -9 Thai chiles
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/4 teaspoon shrimp paste
• 1/4 teaspoon crab, paste
• 1 -2 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon msg (optional, can use salt)
• 2 teaspoons fermented fish (pa-dak -optional)

Directions:

1. Shred the cucumber, including the core (it makes it really juicy!).
2. Using a large Mortar and Pestle, pound the garlic, peppers, shrimp paste, crab paste, and 1/4 teaspoon of sugar.
3. Half the tomatoes and add to the mortar and pestle along with the cucumbers.
4. Pound and mix the contents of the mortar and pestle.
5. Add the rest of the sugar, fish sauce, msg (optional), pa-dak (optional), and squeeze the lime juice in there.
6. Mix the contents of the mortal and pestle.
7. Ready to serve.

Reviews

[lonely_guy]

This is an amazing dish! I looooooove Lao food and have been searching for a good recipe for papaya salad. I managed to find an Asian store that sells shrimp and crab paste and also found some fermented fish sauce. I'm sure the homade "padek" is a lot better than store bought ones, but following the directions to the T brought me back to my vacation in Laos. As suggested by the chef, I made sticky rice and some grilled chicken wings. Yummy! What a great complementary dish! Can't wait to make some for my friends :) Thanks chef!