morsels45

morsels45 said

Som tam

Green papaya pounded with lime, chilli and dried shrimp. Loud in every direction.

Som tam
Photo: Takeaway, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. A photo of the dish, not of these exact recipes.

That was somebody else’s answer. Yours takes about twenty seconds: a handful of either-ors, then one dish.

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How to make som tam

2 genuinely different takes — a classic, and a faster or lighter route. The same ones the app hands you once you have decided.

Pounded in a mortar

20 minutes · serves 2 · Easy

What you need

  • 1 green papaya, shredded
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 4 birds eye chillies
  • 2 tbsp dried shrimp
  • 2 tbsp palm sugar
  • 3 tbsp fish sauce
  • 2 limes
  • 10 green beans, snapped
  • 2 tomatoes
  • Peanuts

What you do

  1. 1Pound the garlic and chilli to a rough paste first. Use a deep clay mortar if you have one; a bowl and a rolling pin will do.
  2. 2Add the dried shrimp and peanuts and bruise them, then the palm sugar, fish sauce and lime.
  3. 3Beans and tomato in, bruised only — you are breaking them, not mashing them.
  4. 4Papaya last, and now switch to lifting and turning with a spoon while you pound lightly with the other hand. Thirty seconds, no more.
  5. 5Taste. Sour first, then hot, then salty, then sweet. Adjust and eat immediately.

With carrot and cucumber

15 minutes · serves 2 · Very easy

What you need

  • 2 carrots and 1 cucumber, shredded
  • Garlic, chilli
  • Fish sauce, lime, palm sugar
  • Peanuts
  • Dried shrimp

What you do

  1. 1Make the dressing in a bowl by crushing the garlic and chilli with the back of a spoon.
  2. 2Toss the shredded vegetables through it and leave 5 minutes.
  3. 3Peanuts on top at the last second.