Name: Spicy green papaya salad with basil and mint (Tam maak-houng)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Laotian
Ingredients: 350 g green papaya, peeled, deseeded and finely shredded; ⅓ tbsp dried shrimp; 2 tsp caster sugar; 8 small tomatoes (baby plum are good), skinned and halved; 2-3 tbsp fish sauce; lime juice, to taste; handful of baby purple Thai aubergines, halved (optional); puffed pork scratchings (optional; available from Chinese food stores); handful each of Thai basil and mint; 3 fat cloves garlic; 4 red birdseye chillies, deseeded and roughly chopped; ½ tsp salt

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Food and Travels

By Alastair Hendy

Published 2004

About

The lightest of pork scratchings, as airy as prawn crackers, should accompany this one, the perfect antidote to the sharpness and crunch of the salad. But not essential. A powerful and pungent fish sauce, paa-daek, is used by Laotians in their dressing. I suggest adding a touch of crushed dried shrimp to regular fish sauce if you really want to score goals. They’d throw in some maak kawk, a sour olive-shaped fruit, too (no, you’re not expected to find that one).