Papaya Salad [Som Tum]

originally uploaded by yuichi.sakuraba.

INGREDIENTS :

• About 2 cups shredded green papaya and carrots
• 2 tablespoon fish sauce1
• ½ tablespoon palm sugar, if not available can substitute it with regular sugar
• 3 tablespoon lime juice
• ½ cups tomato, wedged
• 1/3 cup dried shrimp
• ¼ cup peanuts
• 3 or more green/red chilli
• 3 or more cloves garlic
  

How To :
1. To make the dressing, combine all the dressing ingredients together and set aside.
2. Grate the carrots or any of the vegetables mentioned above, rinse in cold water and drain well.
3. Toss the salad with the salad dressing adding the creshed bird's eye chili peppers should your salad spicy. Add a teaspoon of the peanuts and ground shrimps and toss thoroughly.
4. Plate the salad and garnish with ground peanuts and ground shrimps.

**Tips**
Som tam became famous during the Vietnam war when American G.l'.s came to Thailand for R and R and were introduced to this salad from the North East. Raw papaya is difficult to get in some countries so we suggest you use carrots or cabbage instead. It is recommended that once this salad is tossed it should be eaten immediately since Thai salad dressings do not have oils which help salads stay fresh longer.
Do you know that the flesh and oil from papaya is used to make meat tenderizers? NO wonder it helps your digestion.