Som Tam (Thai Green Papaya Salad with Lime Fish Sauce Dressing)
Quick answer
- Total time
- 18 min
- Level
- Easy
- Servings
- 2 servings
- Ingredients
- 7
About this dish
Shredded green papaya is bruised only lightly in a mortar with a hot lime dressing and keeps its strands crisp instead of limp.
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The mortar acts more like a mixing bowl than a grinder. Pounding hard snaps the thin strands and softens them.
Ingredients
Instructions
- 1
Cut 300 g green papaya into fine shreds, rinse it well in cold water, and drain thoroughly.
If extra water stays on the strands, the dressing will taste diluted and will not cling properly.
- 2
Put 2 bird's eye chilies and 1 tablespoon palm sugar in the mortar.
Pound just until the chilies split and the sugar softens into a paste, keeping the motion controlled rather than heavy.
- 3
Add 2 tablespoons lime juice and 1.5 tablespoons fish sauce, then stir with a spoon inside the mortar.
Mix until most sugar grains disappear and the dressing tastes sour, salty, sweet, and sharp.
- 4
Halve 120 g cherry tomatoes and add them to the mortar.
Press them only two or three times, just enough for their juice to mix with the dressing while some shape remains.
- 5
Add the drained papaya and lift it from the bottom while lightly pounding and turning.
Work for about 30 seconds only, stopping when the strands are glossy but still crisp.
- 6
Add 30 g roasted peanuts and fold once so they stay crunchy.
Taste the salad, adjust with a little more lime juice or fish sauce if needed, and serve immediately.
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