One of my favorite things is to bring exotic recipes and unusual ingredients to my kitchen, especially during the cold season. Green papaya is one such ingredient. Green papaya salad or the Som Tam Thai, reminds me of each trip I made to Thailand. Nice memories if one has to face the frosty January weather.
If you cannot find green papaya at your Asian grocer, try to substitute the green papaya with kohlrabi. A slightly unripe, firm papaya can be used as well, but the taste will be considerably different.
Before I move to the actual recipe, I would like to describe some peculiarities of this salad and the ingredients that are normally used in Thailand.
To prepare this salad you have to chop the green papaya into slivers using a special chopping technique:
- peel the papaya
- hold the whole fruit in your hand and begin chopping it with a very sharp knife to produce deep furrows
- with a swift motion cut the furrowed part off the fruit exposing a new area for the chopping action, chop again and slice off the furrowed part
- turn the fruit around, chop, slice off, and so on.
This technique sounds complicated, but is actually very easy to learn. However, if you want to simplify and speed up things a bit, use julienne peeler. It works just as well.
Ingredients:
- 1 large green papaya
- 1 small carrot, julienned
- 2 red shallots or small red onion, halved and sliced lengthwise
- 6 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 5-6 snow pea pods, sliced diagonally
for the dressing
- 1 Tbsp Thai basil, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp ginger, grated
- 2 large garlic cloves
- 4-5 Thai chili peppers (bird's eye chili) thinly sliced
- freshly pressed juice of 3 limes
- 1 tsp brown coconut sugar
- 1/4 cup lightly roasted, unsalted chopped peanuts
- 2 Tbsp nama shoyu (raw, unpasteurized soy sauce)
for garnish
- 1 lime, sliced, for garnish
- fresh cilantro
- chopped roasted, unsalted peanuts (optional)
Pounding the dressing and, eventually, pounding the chopped papaya and all the other ingredients in a mortar, is another particularity of this salad. In Thailand a tall, conical clay mortar (kruk) and a wooden pestle are used for this purpose. I used my ceramic mortar and pestle to pound the dressing, and lightly pounded the entire salad in a jar with a wooden plunger that I normally use when I am making sauerkraut or kimchi. It worked just as well.
The authentic Som Tam Thai recipe uses fish sauce, dried shrimps, and roasted peanuts. To make the dish raw and vegan, I decided to use raw, unpasteurized soy sauce (nama shoyu) and completely skipped the shrimp. Coconut sugar and a handful of lightly roasted peanuts are the only not raw ingredients that I decided to use to obtain the taste and texture as close to the original as possible.
Method:
- Shred the green papaya. Set aside in a bowl.
- If you have a kruk mortar, toss all the dressing ingredients into it and pound lightly. To make the dressing using regular mortar and pestle, pound basil, ginger, garlic, chili peppers, lime juice, soy sauce, and sugar until well combined. Add peanuts and pound some more. You may, of course, use a food processor or blender to make the dressing. Just remember not to over blend. Adjust the taste to your personal liking. Add Celtic seas salt, more lime juice, or sugar, if needed.
- If you are using the kruk mortar, add the shredded green papaya, sliced shallots, and tomatoes, and pound gently to extract some juice and mix the ingredients with the dressing. If you do not have the kruk, transfer the dressing to a large jar and add the shredded papaya and halved tomatoes, and gently pound them to extract some juice. Add sliced shallots, shredded carrots, and gently pound again. Add sliced snow peas and mix with other ingredients. You can use a large salad bowl to toss all ingredients together. Make sure the dressing is spread evenly.
- Portion out the salad. Garnish with sliced limes, fresh cilantro, and crushed peanuts. Enjoy in good company!
This incredibly tasty and attractive dish will take you away on a gustatory journey to Thailand. It mimics the original, but is made with ingredients that are acceptable by raw, vegan food lovers. As I mentioned in the beginning of this article, you can use kohlrabi if green papaya is hard to come by. An unripe, or green mango will work with this recipe as well.
In radiant health, passionately raw - Dominique
Dominique Allmon©2023