Laotian recipe
How to make Tam mak hoong (green papaya salad)
ຕຳໝາກຫຸ່ງ
Laos and northeastern Thailand
Shredded unripe green papaya pounded in a deep clay or wooden mortar with garlic, chillies, lime, tomatoes and fish sauce. The Lao version is usually sour, salty and very hot, and is often made with padaek, a pungent fermented fish sauce, and sometimes with small salted crabs.
Ingredients
- 1 small green (unripe) papaya, about 400 g
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 to 3 small red chillies, to taste
- 1 teaspoon palm or brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce, or 1 tablespoon fish sauce and 1 tablespoon bottled padaek (boil home-made padaek for a few minutes first and let it cool)
- Juice of 1 lime
- 6 cherry tomatoes, halved
- A few yard-long beans or green beans, cut into 3 cm pieces
Method
- Peel the papaya, cut it in half and scoop out the seeds. Shred the flesh into long thin strips with a coarse grater or a julienne peeler.
- In a large mortar, pound the garlic and chillies to a rough paste. Add the sugar and the beans and bruise them lightly.
- Add the fish sauce (and padaek, if using), lime juice and tomatoes, and press gently so the tomatoes release their juice.
- Add the papaya and pound lightly while turning everything with a spoon, for 1 to 2 minutes, just until the papaya softens a little and soaks up the dressing.
- Taste and adjust: it should be sour, salty, a little sweet and hot. Serve straight away with sticky rice and grilled chicken or sausage.
Made it at home? Tick it off and it goes into your kitchen passport.
In Thailand the same salad is called som tam. The Lao like theirs stronger and less sweet.
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