Som Tam — Green Papaya Salad

Ingredients

• 4 cups green papaya, peeled and shredded into long strands
• 3 cloves garlic
• 4 Thai chilies
• 2 tbsp palm sugar
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 3 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp dried shrimp
• 12 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup Long Beans, cut into 2-inch pieces
• ¼ cup roasted peanuts

Method

1. Pound the garlic and chilies to a rough paste in a large mortar. Add the palm sugar and dried shrimp and work them in until the sugar dissolves.
2. Add the Long Beans and tomatoes and bruise them with a few gentle strikes, turning with a spoon between hits so the juices release into the dressing.
3. Pour in the fish sauce and lime juice and stir to combine, tasting for the sour-salty-sweet-hot balance. It should make you flinch a little.
4. Add the papaya and peanuts and pound lightly while lifting and folding with a spoon — 20 seconds, no more. The strands should be bruised and dressed, never mushy.
5. Serve immediately with sticky rice. It goes limp within the hour, so this is not a make-ahead salad.