Som Tam (Green Papaya Salad)

Som Tam (Green papaya salad)

I am addicted to som tam, yes, it’s a salad and that’s not something you’ll often hear. But som tam is no ordinary salad- it’s quintessentially Thai- it balances sweet, fiercely hot, sour and salty flavours and an awesomely crunchy texture. The juices dribble down your chin and the heat makes your nose and eyes run and leaves you looking somewhat spaced out. Give it a go and you’ll soon be addicted too! This salad, whilst made with several Thai ingredients, is an easy one to find excellent substitutes for.

For two portions you’ll need-

• An unripe green papaya (substitute 3 large carrots) 

• 3 snake or long beans, trimmed and chopped in pieces (10 regular green beans are a perfect substitute)

          

• 8 cherry tomatoes, halved


• the juice of 2 limes


• a good splash of fish sauce (called Nam Pla in Thai) don’t be tempted to use soy sauce- it doesn’t work. All the main supermarkets sell fish sauce


• a handful of salted peanuts


• 4 cloves of garlic peeled


• a dessert spoon of sugar (more or less to your taste)


• small red chillies, chopped roughly (however many you can handle! I use 4)

Like many Thai dishes, the recipe starts with a  paste. You’ll need a pestle and mortar (or improvise with a plastic/ metal bowl and the end of a rolling pin) Bash up the garlic cloves and chillies and sugar, only lightly though- you are only breaking it up a little. Add the lime juice and fish sauce to loosen everything and pop into a bowl. Next throw the bean pieces into the mortar and lightly bash them up too, tip in your bowl, Tomatoes next, again only very lightly to get the juices- throw them in the bowl too. Now the peanuts, lightly crush- throw half in the bowl and keep half back to top the salad with. Finally, with your papaya (or carrots) start by peeling the skin off. There’s basically two ways to prepare them- the fancy way (and probably safer/quicker) is to use a julienne peeler that cuts ribbons, I found graters are too fine and you end up with a pile of mush. If you really get into som tams like I did- I ended up ordering a gadget called a KomKom direct from Thailand- it was only a few pounds and shreds wonderfully.



However, if you like to live life on the edge and have no qualms about serious injury to hands and fingers, prepare your papaya in true thai style, get the largest knife/cleaver you have and holding the papaya, whack deep vertical lines all round, keep turning the papaya as you go. Eventually when you’ve done enough damage, shave the layers off the papaya. Check this youtube video for an example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHUC8he02fU

Finally, throw the papaya shreds in the bowl with everything else, give everything a good mix around, let the salad sit for ten minutes for the flavours to develop and serve up, sprinkling the top with the remaining peanuts. If all goes to plan, five minutes later you’ll be  puffing and blowing with burning lips and a streaming nose but you’ll be back for more, soon enough…