Som Tam (Thai Green Papaya Salad) is a traditional Thai recipe for a classic dish of slivered green papaya with tomatoes, peanuts, chillies and tomatoes in a fish sauce, palm sugar and lime juice dressing. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Thai version of: Thai Green Papaya Salad (Som Tam).
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Thai green papaya salad (known in Thai as som tam ส้มตำ) is an extremely popular dish in Thai cuisine. It's fresh, and balances all the classic Thai flavours of sweet, spicy, salty, and sour, to perfection on a single plate.
Ingredients:
2 garlic cloves
5 Thai chillies (up to you how many depending on how spicy you want it)
2 tbsp shelled peanuts, roasted
1 tbsp fish sauce
½–1 tbsp palm sugar (can also substitute brown sugar)
1–2 limes (I used about 2, but I like things pretty sour)
1 tbsp of dried prawns (optional)
1–2 small tomatoes (the som tam tomatoes in Thailand are different from regular tomatoes - they are known as sida tomatoes, but you could use just 1 roma tomato)
1 generous handful of slivered green papaya (depending on the size of your papaya, I used only about ⅓ of my papaya in this recipe, but papayas come in many different sizes and shapes)
To garnish:
Long-beans or green beans
Green cabbage
Thai sweet basil
More roasted peanuts
Method:
Wash the green papaya then peel off the skin with a potato peeler or a paring knife. You can then use a coarse cheese grater to grate the papaya or do it the traditional way and hack at the papaya with your knife until there are numerous vertical cuts, then shave off the top layer into thin slivers, and repeat. I like the traditional method as you get bigger, un-even, pieces of green papaya. Cut enough green papaya to have a generous handful worth for this recipe.
Add the 2 cloves of peeled garlic and 5 chillies (or however many you like) to a mortar (krok). Pound them for a few seconds until the garlic is crushed and chilies are reduced to small pieces.
Mix in ½ tablespoon of palm sugar, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, and then squeeze the juice from 1–2 limes into the mortar. You can always start with less seasoning and add more to your liking.
Mix and pound the dressing, ensuring that the palm sugar is fully dissolved into the liquid (so no one bites into a chunk of pure palm sugar).
Add about 1 tbsp of roasted peanuts (no need to measure, just grab some with your hand), 1 tbsp of dried prawns, and then coarsely slice the tomatoes directly into the mortar. Pound the mixture for about 30 seconds, lightly breaking up the tomatoes, prawns, and peanuts. No need to pound too hard.
The final step is to toss in a generous handful of the green papaya shavings. Mix everything together, doing a combination of using just a spoon and pounding lightly, but no need to pound hard (you don't want to end up with a paste). Make sure the dressing is coating all the green papaya and that the salad is evenly mixed through and through.
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