This is one of my favorite Thai dishes - that crunchy, fresh, shrimpy salad slathered in lime, fish sauce, cilantro, and Thai basil. It's also one of those foods I never thought to make on my own. Instead, I reserved it for infrequent visits to Thai restaurants and Thai Buddhist temple brunches. Until I found a place where I can buy fresh green papaya in San Francisco.
As the name implies, green papaya is basically an unripe papaya. They sell fresh green papaya at the Manila Oriental Market in San Francisco, in whole and shredded form. I got a bag of already-shredded green papaya and took my treasure home and made fresh green papaya salad. If your local Asian markets don't carry this, you can buy it online here. If you simply cannot find green papaya, don't worry. Just substitute shredded carrots or mung bean sprouts. These will have the same "crunch" and will carry the dressing very well.
Green Papaya Salad (Som Tam)
Ingredients:
1 small green papaya peeled, seeded, and grated or 3 cups of pre-shredded green papaya
1 cup mung bean sprouts
3 green scallions, sliced thin
1/2 cup fresh Thai basil chopped roughly
1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro
1 to 2 small tomatoes, cut in strips (optional)
1/2 cup raw peanuts, crushed
Dressing:
1 to 2 tablespoons of dried shrimp
1 red Thai chili pepper, sliced thinly - adjust amounts to the spice level you desire.
1 1/2 tablespooms sugar
2 limes, juiced
1 clove garlic, chopped fine
2 to 3 tablespoons fish sauce
Preparation:
Combine all the dressing ingredients in a bowl and crush with a pestle or the back of a spoon to release the flavors. Taste. Adjust the fish sauce to your liking - I prefer more so I usually add extra fish sauce. Add the chiles bit by bit until you get the spice level you can handle.
Add the other ingredients and toss well. Taste and adjust the lime juice or fish sauce if needed.
Top with crushed peanuts. Enjoy! This keeps well and was still good the next day; the flavors were more concentrated.
(Image: Kathryn Hill)
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I love this dish! I'll have to hit my local Chinatown and see if I can find this pre-shredded green papaya of which you speak.
Do I have to use dried shrimp? Will it be missing something if I use fresh shrimp? Just not a fan of dried shrimp. I will use it if you think I have to have it:) Other than that it has all of my most favorite things.
bfisk: well, it does add to the flavor, but if you dislike it, omit it and see how it tastes.
I've tried making this at home and it's harder than i thought, the 'dressing' is very subjective so i've made it a few times several different ways and they've all turned out great
Thank you SO much for this post. I love green papaya salad and order it every time I find it on a menu, but haven't been able to figure out where to get green papaya in SF to make it at home. Heading over to the Manila Oriental Market after work!
for those of us who live in benighted countries where no green papaya is to be found:
grated kohlrabi or finely chopped napa cabbage are more than acceptable substitutes. the dressing is the star - taste until it's sweet-spicy-savoury-sour-hot all at once, balance is key.
n.b. i have eaten som tam all over thailand and laos and never once seen thai basil in it.
bean sprouts are also unusual but raw green beans are common.
in any case, som tam is seriously addictive.
Another option if you can't find green papaya is unripe mango. Great flavor, shreds nicely.
Mom always used cucumbers when she couldn't find papayas that were green enough.