Image: Takeaway, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Som Tam depends on crisp green papaya and a dressing pounded from chilli, garlic, lime, fish sauce and palm sugar. The ingredients are bruised lightly rather than mashed.
Ingredients
- 500 g green unripe papaya, peeled and finely shredded
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1–3 Thai chillies
- 30 g palm sugar
- 3 tbsp lime juice
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 100 g cherry tomatoes, halved
- 80 g yardlong beans or green beans, cut into 4 cm pieces
- 40 g roasted peanuts
- 1 tbsp dried shrimp, optional
Method
- Peel and seed the papaya and shred it into long fine strips. Soak in cold water for 10 minutes to crisp, then drain well.
- Pound garlic and chilli roughly in a large mortar. Add palm sugar and pound until nearly dissolved.
- Stir in lime juice and fish sauce. Add beans and dried shrimp if using and bruise lightly.
- Add tomatoes and press only enough to release some juice.
- Add papaya and half the peanuts in batches. Toss with a spoon while gently pounding until coated.
- Serve immediately, topped with the remaining peanuts.
Tips and variations
- Green papaya is unripe and not sweet. Ripe orange papaya will not work.
- Without a large mortar, mix the dressing in a bowl and lightly crush beans and tomatoes with a small pestle.
- For a vegetarian version, replace fish sauce and dried shrimp with vegetarian fish sauce or soy sauce.
