Som Tum Recipe Thai Green Papaya Salad
I tried this as a child and did not like it. I came back to Thailand at twelve, to my uncle's farm in Kamphaeng Phet, the table of the village chief, and Som Tum arrived and something shifted. Six years in America between the first taste and the second. Something in me had changed, or something in the dish had finally made sense. I have not stopped eating it since. This is that Som tum. Four chilies for me. Start at two and find your own.
Ingredients
- 2 cups Green papaya peeled, seeded, and shredded
- 1 cup Cherry tomatoes halved
- 1/4 cup Carrots shredded (optional for extra color and crunch)
- 1/2 cup Long beans cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1/3 cup Roasted peanuts coarsely crushed
- 2 tbsp Dried shrimp
- 2 Garlic cloves
- 1-3 Fresh Thai chili peppers
- 1/4 cup Lime juice
- 3 tbsp Fish sauce
- 1 tbsp Palm sugar or brown sugar
Instructions
Prepare the papaya and vegetables:
- Use a julienne peeler or a large grater to shred the green papaya and carrots into thin strips.
- Rinse the shredded papaya in cold water, drain, and squeeze out excess moisture.
Make the dressing:
- In a small bowl, combine the lime juice, fish sauce, palm sugar. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Pound the chili and garlic:
- In a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic and Thai chilies to a coarse paste. If you don't have a mortar and pestle, mince them together finely.
Combine the salad:
- Add the shredded papaya to the mortar in two batches. Use the pestle and a spoon together, pounding lightly with one hand and tossing with the other. Add tomatoes. Add the dried shrimp and toss once more.
Dress and mix the salad:
- Pour the dressing over the vegetables.
- Use a spoon and a pestle or your hands to lightly bruise the vegetables with the dressing to absorb the flavors. Stir in half of the roasted peanuts.
Serve:
- Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle with the remaining roasted peanuts.
Notes
The papaya must be green and unripe. Not slightly ripe. Not starting to turn orange inside. Firm, pale, almost white flesh with no sweetness at all. Ripe papaya turns soft the moment the dressing touches it and the whole texture collapses. The shredder gives you long even strands that hold up to the mortar and the dressing. Keep the strands long.
The chili count is yours to decide. Two is where most people start. Four is where I live. The heat in Som tum is not background heat, it is present and it builds through the dish. Add one chili at a time, taste after each addition, and stop when you find your level. The rest of the dish does not change. Only the heat does.
The dressing can be built two ways. The mortar method: add the fish sauce, lime, and palm sugar directly to the mortar after the chilies and garlic are pounded, stir to combine with the paste, and taste before the papaya goes in. The bowl method: combine the three in a small bowl, dissolve the sugar completely, then pour over the papaya and vegetables and toss. Both are correct. Either way, taste the dressing before the papaya joins it. Sour first. Salt second. Faint sweetness at the end. The papaya and tomatoes will dilute it slightly once they go in, so the dressing alone should taste slightly more intense than you want the finished dish to be.
Som tum does not keep. Make it immediately before eating. The papaya softens within thirty minutes of the dressing touching it and the dish loses its crunch and its brightness. This is not a make-ahead dish. It is a make-now dish. Set the table first. Then make the Som tum.
Nutrition
Serving: 8ozCalories: 120kcalCarbohydrates: 20gProtein: 4gFat: 3gSaturated Fat: 0.5gCholesterol: 10mgSodium: 480mgFiber: 3gSugar: 12g
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