Som Tam Thai

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 papaya, green, unripe (Asian store)
• 5 tomatoes (cocktail tomatoes) or 1 medium
• 4 garlic cloves
• 5 chilies (Thai bird’s eye chilies – the mashed papaya strips absorb a lot of the heat)
• 4 garlic cloves
• 50 g shrimp(s), dried
• 50 g peanuts, unsalted
• 4 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp palm sugar, crushed
• 1 lime(s), the juice

Instructions

Working time approx. 45 minutes; Total time approx. 45 minutes

Thai papaya salad

The best equipment to use is an original Som Tam Pock Pock (a tall earthenware mortar with a wooden pestle – used in Thailand specifically for making this salad). Peel the papaya with a vegetable peeler, cut it in half crosswise and then lengthwise. Remove the seeds with a teaspoon and scrape out the white part well. Briefly rinse the papaya and pat dry. Finely grate the flesh lengthwise using a raw vegetable grater. Peel and roughly chop the garlic. Deseed and finely chop the chilies. First, thoroughly crush the garlic and chilies in the Pock Pock. Then roughly crush the peanuts and dried shrimp. Now gently crush the shaved papaya in small batches in the Pock Pock, turning it frequently with a spoon. Now lightly press the quartered cherry tomatoes with the pestle. Mix the crushed papaya and tomatoes with the other ingredients. Finally, add the sugar, fish sauce, and lime juice and mix everything well. By the way, the salad benefits from being able to sit for half an hour. Notes: Tom Sam (whether Lao or Thai) uses green, unripe papayas. You can only get these in Asian stores. They are smaller and, unlike the ripe ones, have firm, white flesh and white seeds. Som Tam Thai is a milder, fishier version of the classic Som Tam Lao, as it uses dried shrimp. Som Tam Lao, in contrast, is made with pla raa, which is salted, fermented fish. Pla raa stinks awfully if you put your nose up to it, but in the right proportions it tastes wonderful in Som Tam and only leaves an aftertaste that makes the salad delicious.