Som Tum

This is a typical Thai dish. Which Thai’s eat every day it very very spicy but it does taste nice. Som tam is a basic "salad" style dish, eaten as a snack. Or a side dish.

Ingredients

One papaya shredded in to thin strips
10-12 Thai Birdseye chilli de-stalked, cut in four length-wise then in half cross-wise.
8-10 cloves of garlic, chopped coarsely
2 tomatoes sliced thinly
half a cup of long beans cut into 1" pieces
Teaspoon of Maesri Palm Sugar
two teaspoons of Squid Brand Fish Sauce
1 tablespoon Maesri Tamarind mixed with 3 tablespoons water


Method

Sprinkle the Young hard dark green papaya with salt and let stand for half an hour or so, then squeeze and discard any fluid. Add the Chilli, and pound in our Pestle and Mortar Add the remaining ingredients except the tomato, and pound until mixed and tender. Add the tomato, and serve with a bowl of Khun Chai Sticky rice An optional ingredient you can add to the mix is Dried Shrimp and Peanuts.

You can increase the proportion of chillies until this is a bowl of red fire, and it will still be authentic. On the other hand you can reduce the chillies to just a hint and it will also still be authentic. It all depends on your taste preference. The above 50:50 mix is about typical of the region.

If you wish you can decorate the salad with chopped roast cashew nuts, sliced green onions, and mint leaves. You can also include bean sprouts and sliced cucumber as side dishes. Thais generally eat lettuce or some cabbage related vegetable as a side dish also. The normal way to eat it is to rip a piece of lettuce leaf, and take a mouthful of som tam in the leaf and eat it without knife, fork or spoon. If you want to be a bit more western use a standard salad.