Noodles and Rice

Som Tam

by Stef on March 6th, 2006

This Northern Thai salad, known for its main ingredient — papaya — and its heat (those Thai peppers are killer!)…. whoever thought of this combination ought to be sainted. Of course being Asian I’m probably biased, but for years my favorite salad was Caesar Cardini’s, UNTIL I had some Som Tam! These days I still have a special place in my heart for dear Caesar, but when I want crunch and flavors that make my mouth come alive, I fix me up some som tam. The ingredients should be available in most Asian grocers, but Mexican and Latin American markets may have things like papaya, dried shrimp and palm sugar too. My papaya should have been cut thinner and longer than what I have here, but that’s all I could manage with mediocre hotel kitchen implements.

3-5 Thai peppers
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoon dried shrimp, soaked in hot water for a few minutes to soften, then minced
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon palm sugar
1 tablespoon nam pla / fish sauce
1 medium green (unripe) papaya, peeled, deseeded and cut into fine julienne
1/2 cup green beans, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (blanched in rapidly boiling water for 1 minute if desired)
3 tablespoons roasted peanuts
1 large tomato, cut into small wedges, or 8 cherry or grape tomatoes
Additional fish sauce, lime juice and/or palm sugar for adjusting seasoning at the end
To make the salad, you need a large mortar, or a bowl. Take the peppers, the garlic, and shrimp and pound them (if you don’t have a pestle, do as I do when I was at the hotel and use the handle end of a knife — just be careful you don’t get your hands on that blade. Yikes!). Add the palm sugar and continue to pound, then the papaya, the beans, the peanuts, and the tomato, a bit at a time, pounding and mixing. Sprinkle on the fish sauce and continue to toss and pound. Reserve a bit of the shrimp, peanuts, etc. for topping the salad at serving time if you like. Adjust seasonings with lime juice, sugar and fish sauce You can serve as is, or on a bed of lettuce — or try endives, which you can use as a scoop.
Serve with sticky rice… though I love munching on this by itself — it’s addictive! Laotians have a similar salad called — interestingly — Tam Som. It’s also called “pok pok” in some places, mimicking the sound the pestle makes. Noni fruit has been used as a substitute, although I haven’t tried it myself, one reason being I’ve never found noni here. It’s supposedly a very healthy alternative — of course the papaya itself is plenty healthy — so if you try it with noni let me know how it works for you! Other (non-traditional) items you can add: shredded fresh mango (green or ripe), cucumbers, basil or mint leaves.
Appetizer idea: You can serve these in individual cups of lettuce — yummy!

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POSTED IN: Salads : Asian, Thai