Som Tum (Green Papaya Salad) and Coconut Sticky Rice

During my month long stay in Thailand, and longer stay in Southeast Asia, I lived off street food. This led me to some unique, exotic, and sometimes unidentifiable surprises! My street food diet also led me to my all time favorite salad, Som Tum.  Back home, I sometimes see it on menus in Thai restaurants, but I wanted it MORE often, so I researched and tinkered with recipes until I learned how to make it right at home.  Making this fresh, easy, and healthy meal takes me back to my happy place, on the beach in Koh Tao.

This recipe requires some kitchen equipment and ingredients you may not have on hand, but a trip to your local Asian supermarket will fix you up with one stop, and within a reasonable budget. The first equipment hitch you may run into comes in shredding the green papaya. You can purchase pre-shredded papaya, but I prefer to buy it whole and shred it using a food processor with a shredding attachment.  You may substitute a cheese grater for the shredding, but it will take a bit longer. Lastly, and probably most critical for getting the flavors to come together is a mortar and pestle.  If you don't have a mortar and pestle, I recommend investing. It is an essential kitchen gadget for unlocking the authentic goodness of many spices and sauces, especially for curries (and delicious guacamole).

Ingredients

• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 chili peppers, sliced 
• 2 roma tomatoes, coarsely chopped (or other small sweet/tangy tomato variety)
• 10 long beans, cut into 1 inch pieces (or green beans)
• 1 TBS fish sauce
• 1.5 TBS dried shrimp
• 1.5 TBS coconut sugar (or palm sugar)
• juice of 1 lime
• 4 TBS peanuts 
• 1 shredded green papaya (~3 cups; skin and seeds removed and shredded)

Optional garnishes (I recommend them all!)

• 1-2 cups green cabbage
• 1 chili pepper
• lime slices
• chopped peanuts
• Thai basil

Coconut Sticky Rice... (delicious side that is also a great reliever of the spiciness from the chilies)

• 1 cup rice (glutinous rice is the correct kind for real sticky rice, but jasmine works too)
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1 tsp salt

Shred papaya or place pre-shredded papaya in a large bowl and set aside. 

If making coconut sticky rice, bring water, coconut milk and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan.  Add rice, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes, or as directed on the rice package. 

For the Som Tum, smash garlic in the mortar with the pestle. Add sliced chilies and smash a few times. Add the tomato and long beans and smash a few more times to release the juices of the tomatoes and breakdown the cellulose in the beans. 

Next, add the fish sauce, dried shrimp, sugar, lime juice and peanuts and continue smashing lightly until combined.

Use the spatula to scoop the smashed ingredients onto the shredded papaya and toss until combined. Arrange garnishes on a second plate and serve! Shown below with an extra side of ginger, red curry shrimp :)  Enjoy!