Spicy Mango Cucumber Salad

Thank you to a dear friend (whose name is the same as my maiden name) for sharing her mango salad recipe with me.  She made a kick-ass, super spicy version of this for us at a BBQ and we are hooked! Admittedly, I use fewer chili peppers than she did to tone down the spice. Feel free to adjust the spice to your liking.

Before this salad, I hadn't used tamarind or fermented fish paste to cook. In fact, she gave me a new bottle of fermented anchovy fish paste, in fear of me not being able to find it at the store!

I love trying out new recipes but there are many ingredients that I have not heard of or seen. This may be you as well and for that reason, I'm including photos of a few ingredients used in this recipe below including dried shrimp, fish sauce and fermented fish paste.
If there are any other ingredients you are unsure about, feel free to send me a message or post a comment.

Serves 3-4

2-3 unripened mango, cut in strips

1 large cucumber, julienned 

1/2 pint of grape or cherry tomatoes, cut in halves

1 handful of blanched green beans (optional)

2 tbsp dried baby shrimp, minced up

1- 3 Thai chili peppers, to your liking

For the dressing:

1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce

2 tsp tamarind juice or paste

1 tbsp padaek (Laos fermented fish paste, see below photo)

2 tbsp sugar

Juice of 1/2 a lime

In a mortar and pestle, mash up the chili peppers. Add the dried baby shrimp, grind and mix together with the chili. Add this to the ingredients for the dressing and mix together with a fork in a large bowl. 

Combine with the rest of the ingredients, toss and let it sit for 1 hr before serving to allow the flavours to marinate.