A very popular starter on most Thai menus, the best I have had thus far is fom street vendors in Thailand. They ask you for your ‘chillie’ tolerance, I went for 2, some locals were going for 7 yes 7! birds eye Thai red chillies. The whole mix is pounded together with very fresh organic ingredients and the dressing is tangy, sweet and all sorts! This UK kitchen version won’t be as tasty, but we can’t just hop-onto Thailand all the time now can we?
Ingredients
- 2 cups julienne green papaya or
- 2 cups julienne almost ripe mango (or both)
- 1 medium julienne carrot (optional)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2-3 red birds eye chillies
- 1 tbs dried shrimp (optional)
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 2 tbs freshly squeezed lime juice
- Skin of half a lime
- 1 tbs fish sauce
- 3 tbs long green beans sliced
- 4 tbs roasted peanuts
- 6-8 cherry tomatoes cut into two
Method
- Soak the papaya/mango and carrots in ice-cold water, for 15 mins, drain and keep in a serving platter.
- In a pestle and mortar or small chopper pound the garlic, chillies, dried, shrimp if using and sugar, mixture should be coarse.
- Add the lime juice, lime skin, fish sauce, green bean and peanuts. Work mixture together in a pestle and mortar or in a chopper very briefly until beans and peanuts are slightly broken. Add tomatoes and one more blitz! mix well.
- Taste and adjust, should be sweet, tangy and have a kick!
- Pour dressing over the papaya/mango and carrots, mix well and serve with sticky rice or as a starter.
