Long Bean Salad aka Laos Tam Mak Tuah

Hey All!!

Alright so this one is pretty similar to the mango salad except your using the Asian Long beans!! it has a slight difference in technique but ingredients are mostly the same....here goes....

Mortar & Pestle (see pic)

Get a good batch of Asian Long beans (best one's are at farmers markets, but you can find it at the Asian stores- you can also use regular green bean-just make sure it has a great fresh crunch to it)

5-6 small cherry tomatoes (sliced in half-or any other type of tomatoes whatever the preference just gotta slice it up)

Asian Thai chili's (mild = 1-2small peppers, medium 3, spicy 4+)

1 clove of garlic unpeeled

1 lime sliced wedge

1tsp of salt

1tbsp of sugar

1 and half tbsp of fish sauce (3crab picture brand is the best!)

1tsp of crab paste (black paste)

vermicelli noodles ( the noodles in the pic are the current one's I have in my cabinet...but any vermicelli noodles will do!)

optional: PAD DEK! mostly Lao households will have this because it doesn't taste right unless it's homemade....but not necessary, you can still get the pad dek taste with just the crab paste & fish sauce i mentioned above. (Laos people I know your saying it does not taste the same without pad dek....this recipe caters to those non-Laos people who do not have it & do not know how to make it)

alright so let's start....

1. wash the long beans very well, I would say take 1/2 of the actual bunch. cut an inch off the ends of long beans and the top of them.

2. cut them into 1inch pieces (best if you bunch them together and cut it all at the same time, they do not have to be exactly 1inch pieces)

3. throw your peppers, garlic, and salt in the mortar and mash it up with your pestle

4. then add the long beans and mash those down (your not trying to make it mushy but you are trying to break the crunchiness of it....does that make sense?? lol ) do this for a good 1-2mins.

5. slice up your tomatoes throw it in, add your sugar, fish sauce, crab paste, and lime juice with lime wedge, & the vermicelli noodles (don't forget to boil these.....=))

6. mix & mash them all together in a light motion and serve (4-5 mins of mixing and mashing should be good)!! Enjoy!!

* Remember depending on your taste buds....you can add a little more sugar (sweeties), or fish sauce (salty), or more lime juice (sour taste buds) to cater to your taste buds....

In the picture below I actually used organic fresh green beans from trader joe's.....work just as well and taste just as great as the original Laos version of tam mak tuah!!