Mr. Terrence Haywood gifted me a green pawpaw (papaya) after visiting his farm in Caura. This was my first time ever using green pawpaw. I got a couple suggestions to make pawpaw balls and/or use it as a meat tenderizer but green pawpaw salad or “green papaya salad” has been on my radar to try for quite some time.
There is an authentic way to make green pawpaw salad or “Som Tum” as it is known in Thai cuisine. This authentic method requires specific ingredients as well as using a mortar and pestle to bruise the shredded pawpaw. Bruising the shredded pawpaw along with the chilies, garlic, ginger etc, allows the flavors to really come together to create something that I’m pretty sure tastes amazing. If you want to view an authentic green pawpaw (papaya) salad recipe you can check out the recipe video by HotThaiKitchen.com.
Obviously, I wasn’t going to let access to ingredients and proper tools deter me from making my version of this salad. So if you are a fan of spicy, chow-like, salads. This green pawpaw salad is a must-try recipe.
The one thing that I did try to maintain in the prep for this salad was the shredding technique. I looked at a couple videos and tried it myself and it was easy to replicate.
Green Pawpaw Salad
Ingredients
- 1 green pawpaw (shredded)
- 2 chilies or scotch bonnet pepper
- 5 cloves garlic
- 3″ piece galangal or 1″ ginger
- 1 bundle chives (finely chopped)
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp tamarind paste
- 1 tsp jaggery or cane sugar (regular sugar or honey can work as well)
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- salt (to taste)
Shredding & Prepping The Pawpaw
Use a sharp knife to chop the pawpaw along the surface while turning it in your hand. Put the pawpaw to stand straight and run the knife along the face of the pawpaw to shred. Repeat these steps until all the pawpaw is shredded. Once the all the pawpaw has been shredded, shock it in an ice bath to keep it fresh and crisp!
Prepping The Other Ingredients
You can find galangal at the namdevco farmers’ market in the Queen’s Park Savannah. Most people describe the taste as a very mild version to ginger but to me it tastes like a green mango.
Add garlic, galangal, pepper, jaggery and salt into a mortar and pestle then grind into a paste.
This salad is light and refreshing but layered with flavors. You get the tart flavor from the galangal and tamarind paste. Citrus from the lime juice. Spicy kick from the pepper and the sweetness from the jaggery ties it all together. I had this in my fridge for a week and ate it as a side with every meal. My first meal though, was enjoying it as a topping for a fried pork taco.
I hope you try out this recipe! If you do, please tag us on Twitter or Instagram.
