Som Tam (Green Papaya Salad)

Ingredients

• 1 green papaya, peeled and shredded
• 3 bird's eye chillies
• 3 garlic cloves
• 40 g palm sugar
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• juice of 3 limes
• 100 g snake or green beans, cut short
• 150 g cherry tomatoes, halved
• 60 g roasted peanuts

Method

1. Shred, do not grate

   Peel the papaya and shred it into long thin strands with a julienne peeler, or by chopping into the flesh repeatedly and shaving off slivers. Grated papaya goes wet and pulpy; you want dry, springy threads.

2. Pound the aromatics first

   Pound the chillies and garlic in a large mortar with a pinch of salt. Everything is built in the mortar — this is a pounded salad, which is exactly what som tam means.

3. Dissolve the sugar

   Add the palm sugar and pound to a paste, then work in the fish sauce and lime juice until the sugar has completely dissolved. Taste now: sour first, then salty, then sweet, then hot.

4. Bruise the vegetables

   Add the beans and tomatoes, plus a spoonful of dried shrimp if you have it, and pound lightly a few times — just enough to bruise them so they soak up dressing. Do not crush them to pulp.

5. Fold in the papaya

   Add the papaya and use the pestle and a spoon together, pounding gently while turning, until every strand is coated. Then add most of the peanuts and toss once.

6. Eat immediately

   Serve straight away with the rest of the peanuts on top. Within 20 minutes the salt draws water out of the papaya and it goes limp and soupy.