green papaya salad

A birthday BBQ to attend on Australia Day weekend.  Ritual to "pot luck" a dish over - either savoury or dessert.  I opted to make a salad this time, green papaya salad, as BBQs are undoubtedly meat, meat and more meat! @_@

I really love this green papaya salad.  Just so refreshingly sweet, sour AND spicyyyy! Of course you are most welcome to tweak it to one's own tastebuds preference especially when it comes to how spicy you like it! :)

You can always substitute green mango for green papaya, but bear in mind that green mango is quite sour, so definitely you will need to tweak the sweetness by adding more palm sugar to balance the flavour.

green papaya salad
(recipe adapted from Leemei Tan's Lemongrass and Ginger)

Ingredients:

• 30 g dried shrimps
• 50 g raw, skinless peanuts
• 400 g firm green papaya
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 red bird's eye chillies, deseeded & chopped
• 80 g green beans
• 12 cherry tomatoes, halved
  
  Dressing
• 4 tbsp fish sauce
• 4 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tbsp grated palm sugar or soft light brown sugar

Method:

1. Put the dried shrimps in a small bowl, cover with water and leave to soak for 15-20 minutes.
2. Heat a frying pan over a medium-high heat, then add the peanuts and dry-roast until fragrant and starting to brown.  Remove from the heat and leave to one side.
3. Remove skin of the green papaya.  Then shred the flesh using either a mandolin or zigzag peeler, leaving behind the flesh nearest the seed.  Put the shredded papaya in a bowl of cold salted water for 1-2 minutes to draw out the acidity and firm up the flesh. Drain, pat dry with kitchen paper (I gave the flesh a good spin the the salad spinner to remove excess water before spreading onto some kitchen paper) and transfer to a bowl.
4. Squeeze out any excess water from dried shrimps and pat dry with kitchen paper.  Roughly chop into chunky pieces and put in a separate bowl.
5. Using a mortar & pestle, grind the garlic and chillies.  Add the green beans, little by little, and bruise until all the beans start splitting.  Add the prepared shrimps and peanuts are roughly crushed and all the ingredients are well mixed.
6. Combine the fish sauce, lime juice and sugar in a bowl until the sugar is dissolved.  Slowly add the sauce to the shrimp and bean mixture, blending as you pour.
7. When everything is well pounded and mixed, slowly add the shredded papaya, mixing and lightly pounding between each addition.  Finally, add the cherry tomatoes, toss well and serve immediately.