International Recipes
Som Tam Isan
(Papaya Salad - Thai)
This is a typical isan (northeast) dish. It can be made with or without the plara (pickled mud fish). Potential cooks are warned: this ingredient smells foul! But it does taste nice. Som tam is a basic 'salad' style dish, eaten as a snack.
Ingredients
- 1 papaya (paw-paw) julienned
- An equal quantity of red prik ki nu (birdseye or dynamite chiles)*
- 8 to 10 cloves garlic, chopped coarsely,
- 2 tomatoes, sliced thinly
- 1/2 cup long beans, cut into 1 inch pieces (Thai long beans if possible)
- Pinch of salt
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce
- 1/4 cup tamarind juice
- Juice from 2 tablespoons pickled mud-fish
Instructions
- Sprinkle the julienned papaya with salt and let stand for half an hour or so, then squeeze and discard any fluid.
- Add the chili, and pound in a mortar and pestle.
- Add the remaining ingredients except the tomato, and pound until mixed and tender.
- Add the tomato, and serve with a bowl of sticky rice.
Notes
* These are normally de-stalked, cut in four lengthwise then in half crosswise.
Attribution
Posted by WingsFan91 at Recipe Goldmine 11/15/2001 4:45 pm.
Special thanks to Muoi Khuntilanont.