Thai Corn & Cucumber Pounded Salad (tum tang kao poad)

You might be familiar with som tum or green papaya salad, but did you know we make so many other kinds of "tum," or pounded salads, that's don't have any green papaya in them? This corn and cucumber version is one of my favourite variations, but the takeaway is the technique, and you can then change up the vegetables as you wish!

Ingredients and Notes

Here are all the ingredients you'll need and important notes about them. For amounts and full instructions, check out the full recipe card below.

• Sweet corn, I prefer corn on the cob because I like for the corn to be in big pieces and it is sweeter that way, but in a pinch, frozen or canned will be fine.
• Garlic
• Thai chilies, add as many as you want here, but start with 1 or even half if your heat tolerance is low.
• Palm sugar, finely chopped. Read more about palm sugar here.
• Dried shrimp, roughly chopped if large
• Long beans, this is commonly added to Thai pounded salads but you can totally skip it and add more cucumber if you can't find them. You can also substitute green beans, but be sure to blanch them first in boiling water for 30 seconds; you can eat long beans raw but green beans need to be cooked.
• Tomato, cut into wedges on a bias, or use halved cherry tomatoes.
• Fish sauce, it's important to use good fish sauce here, and if you like a bit of funk, you can also do a combination of fish sauce and pla ra (aka padaek in Lao) which is an unfiltered fish sauce.
• Lime juice, another option is to do a combination of lime juice and tamarind paste for a slightly richer dressing.
• Julienned cucumber. Cut them thin if you like the cucumber to wilt and soften slightly, or keep it thick if you prefer that fresh crunch.
• Salted duck egg, cooked. This is optional but I love the creamy, salty bits of salted duck eggs in pounded salads. You can buy them at Chinese supermarkets alongside all the eggs. Make sure you buy COOKED ones.

How to Make Corn Cucumber Salad

Here are all the steps to make this recipe. If this is your first time, I highly recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success.

Note:This recipe uses a large mortar and pestle made specifically for pounded salads. See my post here for a mortar & pestle guide. If you do not have it, you can still make this salad in a mixing bowl using instructions below. If you have a small stone mortar & pestle, you can do everything up until adding the long beans, then transfer to a mixing bowl for the rest.

1. Bring a large pot of water to a full boil. Add corn and boil for 6-7 minutes. Remove from water, sprinkle the corn with salt on all sides and let cool completely.
2. Once cooled, lay the corn on its side and slice the kernels off the cob, trying your best to keep the kernels together in big pieces; set aside. You will need roughly 165 g of corn kernels, so depending on the size of the ear, you may not need all of it.
3. Cut the salted duck egg, if using, in half right through the shell and scoop out the egg in one piece with a spoon. Cut one half of the egg into chunks (for tossing into the salad), then cut the other half as nicely as you can into wedges (for putting on top of the salad).
4. In a mortar and pestle, pound garlic and chilies until there are no more chunks. Add palm sugar and pound until mostly dissolved.
5. Add dried shrimp and long beans, and pound briefly just to crush the long beans. Add tomatoes, fish sauce and lime juice, adding also a few pieces of the lime rind after juicing.
6. Pound GENTLY to mix and crush the tomato slightly, using a large spoon to help fold the mixture as you pound (best to see video for technique here)
7. Add cucumber, corn and the chunks of the salted duck egg, toss to mix with a spoon.
8. Plate and arrange the wedges of salted duck eggs on top.

How to Make the Salad without a Mortar and Pestle

If you do not have a mortar and pestle, you can still make this salad in a mixing bowl using instructions below. If you DO have a mortar and pestle but it's too small, you can still make the dressing in it, and maybe even add the dried shrimp and long beans, and then transfer to a mixing bowl.

1. Mince the garlic or grate with a microplant, and mince the chilies. Add to a mixing bowl.
2. Finely grate the sugar and add to the mixing bowl, then add the fish sauce and lime juice and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
3. Roughly chop the dried shrimp and add to the mixing bowl along with the long beans.
4. Add tomatoes and crush gently with a wooden spoon or spatula to release their juices into the salad. Add the cucumber and salted duck egg chunks, if using, and toss to mix.

Recipe Card

Print