Thursday, August 4, 2011

THAI PAPAYA SALAD



Papaya trees grow from a seed to a fruit-bearing 20 foot tree in about eighteen months. And they fruit the way rabbits breed. In a bunch. They are not one of my favourite fruit because they have a slight bitter undertone. But young green papaya when made into a Thai salad transforms into something quite, quite wonderful. Utterly refreshing. 

My first encounter of a Thai papaya salad was at the Thai ambassador's cocktail party many years ago. In an effort to promote their cuisine they had booths set up to demonstrate the makings of various scrumptious Thai dishes. Surprisingly amoung all other mouth-watering dishes the one dish that I fell in love with was the Thai papaya salad. 

I think it was the combination and perfect balance of fresh fruit, toasted dried shrimps, hot chillies, salty fish sauce, tart lime juice and crunchy peanuts that won me over.




With the Thai papaya salad comes the above, right, which, I  believe, is a Thai invention. The papaya/fruit shredder. It looks like an ordinary fruit or vegetable peeler the only difference being that the blade is grooved intermittently across. 

I saw this device on Luke Nguyen's show and have been scavenging the shops ever since. I had asked the Thai girl at the organic shop which I frequent where to get one. She looked at me incredulously and said ...anywhere. Obviously I had not been anywhere. Well finally it wasn't anywhere that I found this pretty device but at Vivahome along Jalan Loke Yew....a large spanking new mall that has shops selling nothing else but kitchen things and home furnishings. From end to end and top to bottom. Finally mother and I had landed in heaven.


 

The recipe ~


I bought a very firm, dark green, young papaya, the inside a light orange and firm, the shredding of which was bliss.

Thai Papaya Salad ~


2 - 2 1/2 cups of shredded young papaya
Juice of 2 limes
1/4 cup palm sugar , grated
1 T water
salt
1 red chilli, chopped finely or 2 bird chillies crushed
1 T fish sauce
2 T dried shrimps, toasted or lightly fried in a little oil
a few sprigs of coriander leaves with stems, chopped finely


Put the shredded papaya into a large bowl. throw in the chopped chilli and coriander.

Mix the palm sugar and water in a small pot and heat until sugar dissolves. Keep aside and allow to cool. 


Meanwhile pound dried shrimps in a pestle and mortar and then add peanuts and pound gently to just crush peanuts. Do not pound to a paste.The mixture should be crumbly and the nuts in small chunks.


Mix the cooled syrup with the lime juice and fish sauce in another bowl and pour this dressing over the shredded papaya mixture. Add the pounded shrimps and peanuts and mix with your fingers or two spoons gently to coat the fruit evenly with the dressing. Add fish sauce or extra lime juice to balance the flavours.

Sprinkle more crushed peanuts over the top.


Serve cold or at room temperature as a side dish.

Note : A combination of shredded cucumber and papaya is good too.



12 comments:

Shirley @ Kokken69 said...

Zurin, I like the Thai Payaya Salad too and like you, I am not a big fan of papayas... I only eat it when I suffer from constipation..hahaha... Love the way you've served this in noodles strands!

Anonymous said...

I hate papaya... but i couldn't tell you why i looove papaya salad and papaya gratin!!! (Love your pics!)

Torviewtoronto said...

colourful papaya salad looks wonderful

La Table De Nana said...

Could it be any prettier? Set upon that bluewashed board?

Have that tool:)

Love papaya..So pretty Zurin.Thank you.

Unknown said...

I've never tried anything like this. Crushing the small fish and adding them to the peanuts sounds so intriguing. I would love to try this!!

Inspired by eRecipeCards said...

BEAUTIFUL... I'm off to amazon to see if I can find one of these

ICook4Fun said...

Zurin, I love this papaya salad too especially with loads of crunchy dried shrimps and peanuts on top but usually order them from the Thai restaurant. I am looking for the shredder/peeler too. Do you happen to have the address of the shop you got it from. I going to ask my sister to go and get me one. Thanks.

Elin Chia said...

Zurin...this is a great appetizer. I am also not a fan of papaya but with this preparation I am hooked :) Thanks for sharing this thai sytle papaya salad. Will be looking for this shredder peeler too :)

Put me in that shop, I know I will never want to come out of it until I shop dead :p

Happy Berpuasa,
Elin

Xiaolu said...

One of my FAVORITE salads of all time -- yours looks fresh and flavorful! I just finally gave in and bought one of those peelers 8)

Unknown said...

The salad looks great.

Nisha said...

I love this one. It's called Som Tam, and eaten with Thai Sticky Rice. It has the sweet-salty-spicy-tangy flavor like no other. Love it!
Reminds me of back home, oh.
Some people also put crab marinated in some liquid (I don't know exactly, but I've seen).

~ Recent follower :)


Nisha from Spusht

nachturnal said...

Ah, papaya salad! My father used to make this when I was a kid, except he did it with super-young papaya (so the flesh was still green) and added carrot to the mix. He also put tamarind paste in the dressing. Really good stuff! :)

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails