Green Papaya Salad

Had a much-appreciated date night at a Sur La Table cooking class with my husband a few weeks ago.  We took the Modern Thai Cooking from Pok Pok class.  It was awesome.  The kind of awesome that made me want to go home and immediately re-create everything that we had just cooked.  When I first saw the list of unfamiliar ingredients for the dishes, I have to admit I had reservations about trying to replicate the dishes at home.  Once I tasted everything though, I decided an extra trip to the Asian market to hunt for these ingredients would definitely be worth it.

The first dish of the evening was this Green Papaya Salad.  Green Papaya Salad, also known as Som Tam, is such a refreshing salad for summer.  It’s delightfully crunchy and crisp, slightly sweet, and spicy hot.  Please note that green and unripe papayas from your everyday supermarket will NOT work for this salad.  After I had made up my mind that I was going to conquer this salad at home, I went to the grocery store and chose the greenest and most upripe looking papaya that I could find.  I was so disappointed when I sliced the papaya open and found a slightly pink flesh and black seeds. Not ripe enough for eating and not “green” enough for the salad, it had to be thrown away.  So sad.  A true green papaya has a completely white flesh with white seeds.

Green papayas used in Thai cooking can be found in the produce section of a speciality Asian supermarket .  These papayas have been picked far earlier in the ripening process than the papayas found in a regular supermarket.  Green papayas are used more like a vegetable in Asian cooking, rather than a fruit.

The recipe uses a mortar and pestle to crush the garlic and chili peppers into a paste that eventually becomes incorporated into the dressing.  Fortunately, my mom was able to let me borrow hers (thanks, Mom!), but I think making the dressing in a mini food processor might work in a pinch if you don’t have one.   We used a mandoline in class to julienne the green papaya, but I personally think mandolines are scary.   I recently bought a julienne peeler and I love using it for this salad.  I’m not a big fan of acquiring lots of little kitchen gadgets, but the julienne peeler was relatively inexpensive and it takes up so little room in the kitchen.  It is so fun to julienne vegetables now!

This healthy and refreshing salad is bursting with flavor and crunch.  I am so happy that I no longer need to go to a Thai restaurant to enjoy this salad!

Green Papaya Salad

• Yield: 2-3

Ingredients

• 2 stemmed red Thai chilies
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 small lime, preferably a Key lime, halved through the stem
• 5-6 long beans, cut into 2-inch pieces, about 1/2 cup
• 1 tablespoon lime juice, preferably Key lime juice
• 1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon Tamarind water *
• 4 ounces peeled julienned green papaya, about 1 1/2 cups, lightly packed
• 1/2 carrot, julienned
• 1/4 cup grape tomatoes, halved
• 2 heaping tablespoons unsalted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Instructions

1. Remove seeds from the Thai chili peppers and slice in half lengthwise. Slice the garlic clove in half lengthwise.
2. Combine the chili peppers, garlic, and sugar in a large mortar and use a pestle to pound together until garlic and chili peppers become chunky and slightly mashed. There should still be small pieces of garlic and chili peppers remaining.
3. Cut one of the lime halves into 3 wedges and add to the garlic and chili peppers. Lightly pound on the lime wedges to release some of the juice.
4. Add the lime juice, fish sauce, tamarind water. Use pestle to mix sauce together.
5. Add the long beans and lightly pound to slightly bruise them. Add the papaya and carrots and barely pound to slightly bruise the papaya. Use a wooden spoon to toss salad together, making sure that the sauce on the bottom becomes well incorporated with the vegetables.
6. Add the tomatoes and peanuts and toss once again. Transfer to a serving plate and garnish with some extra peanuts.

Notes

* To make tamarind water, combine 4 tsp of tamarind with 3/4 cup boiling hot water. Let the mixture sit for about 30 minutes, breaking up the tamarind as it softens. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer and press on the tamarind solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the solids. Extra tamarind water can be saved for up to a week in the refrigerator. Stir well before each use.

Adapted from Andy Ricker’s Pok Pok