Som tam
Local name : ส้มตำ
Green papaya salad pounded in a mortar with cherry tomatoes, long beans, lime, chilli and toasted peanuts, sharp and fiery.
Photo : Vyacheslav Argenberg · CC BY 4.0
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 0 min
- Total
- 25 min
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
Method
- Peel the papaya, halve it and scoop out the seeds. Shred the flesh into fine matchsticks with a julienne grater or a knife, and drop them into iced water for 10 minutes to crisp up.
- In a large mortar, pound the garlic and chillies to a rough paste.
- Add the palm sugar, lime juice, soy sauce and salt, and pound until the sugar dissolves.
- Add the beans and bruise them lightly without crushing, then the tomatoes, pressing just enough to release their juice.
- Drain the papaya and add it by the handful. Alternate gentle pounding with stirring using a spoon, to coat it without turning it to mush.
- Taste and adjust; the salad should be sour, sweet, salty and hot all at once.
- Serve straight away on plates, scattered with crushed peanuts, with sticky rice or raw cabbage leaves.
Without a mortar, mix everything in a bowl while pressing the ingredients firmly with the back of a spoon. Som tam does not keep, so make it and eat it right away.
