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Green Papaya Salad ส้มตำ (old version)
- Yield: Serves 2
Ingredients
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- Thai chilies, to taste
- 1.5 Tbsp small dried shrimp, roughly chop if you have large ones
- 5 long beans, cut in 2” pieces
- ¼ cup roasted peanuts
- Pickled black crab, optional
- ¾ cup grape tomato halves
- 2 cups shredded green papaya (See my video on how to shred papaya)
Dressing
- 2 Tbsp palm sugar syrup *
- Juice of half of a juicy lime, about 2 Tbsp
- 1 Tbsp tamarind juice
- 1.5 Tbsp fish sauce
- 1 Tbsp Pla Ra (fermented fish paste), optional **
Recipe Notes:
* To make palm sugar syrup, cook ½ cup finely chopped palm sugar with 3 Tbsp of water, stirring until all sugar is dissolved. Store leftovers in a sealed jar for future uses.
** If not using Pla Ra, increase fish sauce to 2 Tbsp.
Instructions
In a clay mortar, pound together garlic and chilies until there are no more big chunks.
Add dried shrimp, and pound to crush them up a bit. Add long beans and peanuts, and pound to break them up.
Add palm sugar syrup, fish sauce, lime juice, and Pla Ra, if using. Throw in the remainder of the lime after juicing as well for added flavour. Mix well with a large spoon.
Add pickled crab, papaya and tomatoes. Mix everything together using the "pound and flip" technique shown in the video.
Serve with sticky rice and Thai BBQ Chicken!
If you do not have a mortar & pestle, you can: Grate the garlic with a zester, finely mince chilies, chop the peanuts, and bruise the long beans with any pestle-like object you can find (a bottle? rolling pin?). Toss everything together in a bowl. Or if you have a small mortar and pestle, follow the recipe until the dressing ingredients are all added. Toss the content of the mortar with the crab, papaya and tomatoes in a larger bowl. The idea here is to mimic what the missing equipment would’ve accomplished!
charlie
Love all your videos , but İ find pla ra / padaek vexxing
İ have eaten them prepared and like it , but at home i freak out when using uncooked
İ live in a major metro area, but there is so much crossover between lao/viet/Thai/Ömer/phillipine ingredients , none of it is translated also for nam bu there are other crab and shrimp chutneys that are not fermented , i know most of this finds its way into salads , soups and entrees how do know it is a good flavor for the dish and which to buy ? Right now my pla ra bottle say Qu hoc but is a product of Thailand , my crab paste has no roman letters but the shop attendent said it was Naam bu , but couldn't give me any other info
★★★★★
L.L.
I used your recipe and love it, btw do you know what type of mortar and pestle is best for som tam, wood or clay? thanks
Futile Resistance
This was very nice. Just be careful not to cut your finger off.
★★★★★