SOM TAM

SOM TAM

#SIAintheKitchen

One of my favourite Thai dishes to eat is som tam or Thai green papaya salad. Crunchy julienned pieces of fresh, young papaya, waxy Chinese long beans and sweet, acidic tomatoes all tossed up in a signature Thai dressing. It’s been probably about a year since I last made this dish but with the weather warming in Vancouver, I thought I’d revisit it.

This salad is so easy to make and can serve a crowd, depending on how large your papaya is. It’s imperative that you use young or green papaya and not the ripened kind. Stray away from the large yellowish green ones - we’re not making dessert here! You can generally find young papaya in most Asian markets; I had find mine at my local grocery store in the refrigerated section.

You can either cut this up Thai-style which is where you skin the melon and start hacking away at it, then shaving off julienned pieces. It’s a little dangerous and I have yet to master it that way. I was also scared of chopping my hand off. So I went with an equally dangerous approach by using my Benriner mandolin. I say equally dangerous because you can also slice off your finger pretty quickly this way as well. But I’m so accustomed to using my mandolin now that it’s no trouble for me anymore. Just be sure to insert one of the teeth, depending on which desired thickness you’d like your papaya strands to be.

Lastly, eat this with steamed Thai sticky rice. This is how I had it when I was in Thailand last year. The rice is the perfect sponge to soak up all that addictive vinaigrette.

SOM TAM - makes 8 - 10 servings

• 1 small green/young papaya, skin peeled

• 1/2 pint grape tomatoes, washed and halved

• 1 handful Chinese yard long beans, ends trimmed and cut into 3” pieces

• 1/2 cup fish sauce

• 1 -2 limes, juice only

• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

• 1/4 cup dried shrimp paste in oil OR dried shrimp, pounded

• 5 Thai bird’s eye chilies, stems removed and sliced

• crushed roasted peanuts (optional)

• thai sticky rice

1. Blanch the Chinese long beans in a pot of boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain and plunge into an ice bath. Set aside in a large serving bowl.

2. Add the tomato halves to the serving bowl.

3. Halve your green papaya and remove the seeds and bitter cavity. Using your mandolin, julienne the papaya over the serving bowl until all flesh has been chopped.

4. In a small bowl, mix the remaining ingredients until the sugar has dissolved. Toss with the salad. Sprinkle roasted peanuts on top if using and serve with Thai sticky rice.