Thai Lao Cucumber Salad

The cucumber salad video introduces the Crab Extract. You can use this crab extract to make jeow ga boo which is a traditional sticky rice dipping sauce.

Also the crab extract is a popular ingredient in the long bean noodle salad and the green papaya salad to give the sauce a dark colour. You can mix the cucumber salad with vermicelli noodles but in my video, I mix it with ground toasted sticky rice.

Jeow Ba Dek - Lao National Dipping Sauce

For every Lao and Thai traditional meal, there must be a dipping sauce, also known as 'jeow'. This jeow ba dek is the most traditional and that is why I call it the Lao National Dipping Sauce.

Other versions of this traditional Thai and Lao dipping sauce:
For 'jeow ga be' use shrimp paste instead of salted gourami fish
For 'jeow ga boo' use crab paste instead of salted gourami fish
For 'jeow bee' add 1 tablespoon of gall bladder and mix with any dipping sauces to give the sauce a bitter flavour

Jeow Ba Dek
½ teaspoon chopped lemongrass
½ teaspoon chopped galangal
½ teaspoon chopped garlic
1 chopped kaffer lime leaf
2 tablespoons chopped or minced salted gourami fish (ba dek)
1 teaspoon fish sauce (optional)
3 tablespoons lime juice

In a Thai / Lao Mortar & Pestle Set pound lemongrass, galangal, garlic, and lime leaf until smooth. Add minced salted gourami fish and squeezed lime. Mix and serve with sticky rice and jasmine rice

Long Bean Noodle Salad

I post this Thai and Lao salad to introduce 'Ba Dek' which is salted and cured fish. Basically, it is fresh fish that is cleaned and chopped, mixed with salt and rice, and then covered for about 4 days to cure and sour. You can always find this at Asian supermarkets.

In northern Thailand and Laos, green papaya salads are mixed with salted fish. Another reason for posting this video is to show you how to mix vermicelli noodle with green papaya salads and long bean salads.

Since the fibers of long beans are tougher than green papayas, you must crush the long beans with garlic and chilies until they are in small pieces before adding other ingredients.
Salad Recipe: Long Bean Noodle with Ba Dek4 chilies
1 clove garlic
1 cup long beans chopped into 1 inch lengths
1/4 cup tomato slices
2 tablespoons squeezed lime
2 tablespoons Salted Gourami Fish (ba dek)
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
1 teaspoon MSG (optional)
1 to 2 rice noodle bundles (Sin Khao Bune)

Using the Thai / Lao Mortar & Pestle Set, crush chilies and garlic until they are separated. Add chopped long beans and crush with a pestle for 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients in the mortar and mix all the ingredients. Cut rice noodles in half, add into mortar, and mix with spoon.