1
StepPeel the green papaya, then shred it into long thin strands with a julienne peeler or by scoring the flesh repeatedly with a knife and shaving it off. Soak the shreds in cold water for 10 minutes and drain them dry.
Salads
Som Tam Green Papaya Salad
Shredded green papaya bruised in a clay mortar with garlic, chilli, palm sugar, lime and fish sauce until it drinks up the dressing. Dried shrimp, long beans and tomatoes go in whole and get cracked just enough to release their juice. Sharp, salty, hot and cold at the same time, and no cooking at all.
20 min
Prep: 20 / Cook: 0
2
servings
Easy
Difficulty
4.4
5 Ratings
Ingredients
- 300 g green papaya
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3 pieces thai chilli
- 25 g palm sugar
- 1 tbsp dried shrimp
- 60 g long bean
- 80 g cherry tomato
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 30 g roasted peanut
Preparation
7 Steps
2
StepPut the garlic and chillies in a deep clay or wooden mortar and pound them to a rough paste. Add the palm sugar and pound until it dissolves into the paste.
3
StepAdd the dried shrimp and pound briefly, just enough to break them up and release their smell.
4
StepCut the long beans into 4 cm lengths and halve the tomatoes. Add them and pound with light taps, turning with a spoon, until the beans are bruised and the tomatoes have given up their juice but are still recognisable.
5
StepAdd the papaya in two batches, pounding gently with one hand while turning the salad with a spoon in the other. Twenty light taps per batch is enough; you want it bruised, not crushed.
6
StepPour in the fish sauce and lime juice and turn everything through the dressing. Taste and balance: sour, salty and sweet should all be obvious, with the heat behind them.
7
StepTip onto a plate with all the juices, scatter the roasted peanuts over the top and eat straight away, while the papaya is still crunchy.
Chef's Tip
Pound, do not blend: the point is to bruise the papaya so it absorbs the dressing while staying crunchy. If green papaya is impossible to find, unripe green mango or a firm kohlrabi shredded the same way works.
Comments (3)
cut it down to one chilli and it was still plenty hot for me
even in a big mortar it nearly overflowed once the long beans went in
work in two batches and lift from underneath with the spoon. a deep clay mortar helps more than a wide one.
pounding and mixing are not the same thing at all, i finally understand why