Spice & Som Tum

Sawasdee Khrap! Hello, me again.
Today I want to introduce you to a different and delicious kind of salad. Talking about it at 3:06 in the morning is difficult because I just want to eat it right now. First put your hands together and bow your head. I told you it's 3 in the morning and I'm bowing my head to my computer right now for this dish. There's excitement all around when the thought of this salad arises. Trust me. The ladies dig it.

This is a Thai salad that is sweet, tangy and spicy all at the same time. It will invigorate your taste buds and set the room on fire. To prepare you will need a jug of water and paper towels to wipe your foreheads for each person sharing this dish.

Natty Netsuwan's Thai salad: (Love it!)

Ingredients:

(A dish for two)

5 Cherry Tomatoes, 2 chili peppers, 1 tablespoon dried shrimp, 1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce, 1 clove garlic, 6 green beans, 2 cups shredded green papaya, 3/4 lime, 1 1/2 tablespoons Palm Sugar, 2 tablespoons toasted peanuts optional.

Materials Needed===============================================

1.) clay mortar
2.) wooden pestle
3.) spatula

Cooking Instructions=============================================

So let's begin. First you want to smash a clove of garlic and then add green beans and halved cherry tomatoes. Pound the mixture a few times just so to bruise the beans and get the juice out of the tomatoes. Then add in the chili peppers and crush them just enough to release the flavors of the spice. Depending on your taste buds and your preference of spice you can add in more or less of the chili peppers (This is where the jug of water comes into play later). Next you want to add in the green papaya, dried shrimp, toasted peanuts, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar. Use the pestle to push the mixture up in the mortar and the spatula to push it down so that the mixture is mixed well.

However, if you do not have a big enough mortar you can crush garlic, tomatoes, green beans. Set them aside in a large bowl. Add dried shrimp, lime juice, fish sauce and palm sugar to the bowl. Add green papaya and mix well.

Serve with sticky rice and a sliver of cabbage, green beans and Thai basil. The cabbage and the green beans along with the sticky rice work alongside the jug of water. All you need now is the right person to eat it with. Enjoy everyone and thank you Natty!

Here is a video from Rin Silpachai over at Rins Cook Book  Enjoy!

I'd like to give my thanks to Natty Netsuwan for her amazing Thai Salad (som tum) recipe as well as Rin Silpachai for her amazing video recipe. Thank you both!  If you enjoyed this post, enjoyed these recipes and are still interested in learning new and exciting ways to live life in the healthiest way possible then visit Natty at http://www.thaitable.com/thai/recipe/green-papaya-salad and Rin over at http://rinscookbook.blogspot.com/