"Papaya Pok Pok"

Hello steemians. A few weeks ago I wrote a Thai mango salad recipe https://steemit.com/food/@boydwander/thai-spicy-mango-salad. And I happened to get a request to write up a papaya salad from. Which is another signature dish from Thailand. Everybody loves papaya salad in Thailand and out of Thailand. We normally have it for lunch with sticky rice and some kind of grilled meat.

Fun fact about papaya salad. You may have heard some people call it "Papaya Pok Pok", to make papaya salad you would need a mortar and pestle. "Pok Pok" is a sound the Thais make to mimic the noise when the pestle hitting the mortar.

These days there are so many different variations of papaya salad. It used to be only a few variations but now people are being more creative and adventurous with food.

However today I'm going to share my favourite variation which is called "Thum Thai". This variation has 3 flavours equally balanced sweet, salty and sour. This is a basic papaya salad, From here you can add any of the following ingredients such as blue crabs, shrimps, calamari or my personal favourite cooked salted eggs.

Some of you may think that this is a spicy dish but you can make it as spicy as you like or not spicy at all. This is also a tasty alternative salad if you are one a diet or in the mood for a lighter meal.

Ingredients for the salad are easily obtained in any supermarket. Though green papaya might be tricky in some places but if you have Asian grocery stores around I'm sure you can get one no problem. If you can't get your hands on green papaya then carrot is my first choice for the alternative.

You will also need these ingredients for the salad
This recipe yield 1 serving

Garlic.................................1 clove
Chili, Fresh.........................1 or as many as you like
Dried shrimps....................1/2 Tbsp (upon availability)
Palm sugar.........................1 Tbsp (regular sugar will also work)
Lime juice..........................1 Tbsp
Fish sauce..........................1 Tbsp
Green papaya....................1 cup, shreded
Cherry tomato...................3, halved
Green beans......................3 beans, cut into 1" length
Toasted peanuts................1 Tbsp

Method

Peeled and shredded the green papaya. To shred the papaya this is how we do it in Thailand. Let's hope I can explain how it's done.

After you peel the papaya, hold it in your hand and with the sharp edge of the knife in the other hand hit the papaya rapidly. You will end up with something like this.

Then use a peeler or use the knife to slice the papaya off as thin as you can.

Repeat the method until you end up with enough shredded papaya.

Now you are ready to put it all together. You will need a mortar and a pestle. If you don't have one, don't worry. You can just toss the salad in a bowl or use a glass bottle instead of the pestle.

In the mortar you going to add the garlic, chili, dried shrimps and the sugar and crush them.

Add lime juice and fish sauce into the mortar, with the pestle crush the ingredients and make sure the sugar is completely dissolved before you add the next ingredient.

Then add shredded papaya, tomato and green beans, crush it a few times with the pestle. Then with a spoon turn the salad in the mortar and crush it again this ensure the flavour is seeping into the papaya.