Every time I go to Bangkok, I make sure to have green papaya salad. Locally known as som tam, the dish combines sour (lime), salty (fish sauce), spicy (chilies) and sweet (palm sugar) taste which gives it a unique and balance savory flavor.
The dish is also a delicacy to Thai neighboring countries, in Laos they call it tam mak hoong and bok l'hong in Cambodia. This is made by shredding unripe papaya then mixed and pounded in a mortar.
Sharing my version of Thai Papaya Salad for this month's Kulinarya Cooking Club Challenge : Pambaha ng Buhay hosted by Isabel and Kai.
Ingredients
1 c Shredded
Green Papaya
¼ c Shredded
carrots
6 Cherry
tomatoes (sliced in half)
2 tblspn
Dried Shrimps
3 tblspn
Roasted Peanuts
2 pcs Bird’s
eye chillies
4-5 cloves
Garlic
2 tbspn
Brown Sugar
2 tblspn
Fish Sauce
1 ½ tblspn
Lime or Lemon Juice
1 tblspn
Tamarind Paste
Procedure
Pound garlic, dried shrimps, chillies and peanuts in mortar
Add cherry tomatoes, pound few times until juice comes out
of the tomato
Season with lime juice, palm sugar, fish sauce and tamarind
paste
Add papaya and carrots mix well
Food Notes :
1. Thai Papaya Salad is listed number 46 on CNN GO's 2011 World's 50 most delicious foods
2. In the streets of Bangkok, Som Tam is prepared according to customer's taste
