Anywhere you go in Laos, you will find women patiently preparing papaya for this salad. Using a small machete-like knife, they make repeated shallow parallel cuts, each about 1/8 inch deep, in a section of the papaya. Then they scrape the papaya from top to bottom so they end up with very nice julienne. A food processor fitted with the julienne disk or a manual slicer such as a mandoline works equally well.
ingredients
- 1 (1- to 1 1/4-pound) green papaya
- 1 large tomato, chopped
- 2 ounce Asian-style beef jerky (optional), cut into fine julienne
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 1 to 3 small (1-inch) fresh Asian chiles such as bird or Thai, minced
- 1 tablespoon minced peeled galangal or fresh ginger
- 4 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
- 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- Accompaniment: soft-leaf lettuce
preparation
Peel and seed papaya. Cut into large pieces and then julienne. Combine with tomato, jerky, garlic, chiles, and galangal in a large bowl. Stir together lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar in a small bowl until sugar is dissolved and toss with papaya mixture.
Mound salad on a platter and serve with lettuce leaves for wrapping.
Green Papaya Salad Recipes...
