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Som Tum: Thai Green Papaya Salad

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Prep Time 25 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

For the salad
  • 1 medium green papaya about 2 pounds, peeled, seeded, shredded (4 cups)
  • 1 cup long beans about 6 ounces, cut into 2-inch pieces
  • 12 cherry tomatoes halved
  • 1/2 cup roasted peanuts roughly crushed
  • 2 tablespoons dried shrimp rinsed, optional but traditional
For the dressing
  • 3 to 6 Thai bird's eye chiles to taste
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 tablespoon palm sugar shaved; plus more to taste
  • 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice plus lime wedges for serving
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
  • 1 tablespoon tamarind paste mixed with 1 tablespoon warm water, optional

Method
 

  1. Shred the papaya: peel, halve, and seed the green papaya, then shred into long thin strands (4 cups). Soak in ice water for 10 minutes, drain well, and pat dry.
  2. Pound the base: pound the chiles and garlic with a pinch of salt into a rough paste in a large mortar. Add the palm sugar and dried shrimp; pound until the sugar dissolves and the shrimp breaks down.
  3. Make the dressing: add the lime juice, fish sauce, and tamarind water; stir with the pestle until dissolved. Taste - it should be assertively sour, salty, and hot with a background sweetness.
  4. Bruise the beans and papaya: add the long beans and pound a few times until bruised. Add the papaya shreds in two batches, pounding and folding until lightly bruised but still crunchy.
  5. Finish and serve: fold in the cherry tomatoes and half the peanuts. Plate up, spoon over remaining mortar dressing, scatter with the rest of the peanuts, and serve immediately with lime wedges.