PLACE OF ORIGIN: Laos/north-eastern Thailand
REGION: Nationwide in Laos/Thailand
DISH TYPE: Salad
MAIN INGREDIENT: Green papaya
COOKING STYLE: Uncooked
FOOD TYPE: Street food
COURSE: Side dish, sometime main course
Green papaya salad is the national dish of Laos and Thailand. While people are familiar with the papaya fruit, which when ripe is a deep orange colour, this dish uses unripe papaya, the meat of which is light green and firm. Green papaya salad is a common street food, where the freshest ingredients are used and made to order. Crispiness is found in the green papaya and long beans, heat from chilies, crunch from roasted peanuts, sweetness from the cherry tomatoes, rock sugar and tamarind, acidity from the lime all bound together with umami filled fish sauce. The ingredients for this dish have come from different parts of the world, but come together to create a uniquely flavoured healthy dish that hits all basic flavours with great texture and mouth feel.
taste profile
The flavour profile of a cuisine is based upon the local ingredients, equipment, and the style and methods used for cooking. When defining a flavour profile, keep the 5 basic tastes and 3 elements in mind.
3 ELEMENTS
- Temperature relates to the level of thermal heat contained in the dish when served.
- Texture or mouth feel is how the dish feels in your mouth, for example, crunchy, silky, or creamy.
- Spiciness is the amount of capsaicin, piperine, or other spicy component that is found in the dish.
5 BASIC TASTES
- Umami relates to the amount of glutamate in food which tastes earthy or meaty. Examples include fish sauce, mushrooms, or meat.
- Saltiness is the level of salt detectable in the food. Examples include salt, soy sauce and miso paste.
- Sourness is related to how much acidity is detectable in the food. Examples include lemon and vinegar.
- Sweetness is the amount of detectable sugar in the food. Examples include honey, sugar, and maple syrup.
- Bitterness is more of a sensation than a flavour. Examples include mustard, coffee, and orange peel.
ingredient origins
Vegetables originated in different parts of the world. While some spreading occurs though animals, cross continent travel is usually through humans.
Papaya is native to an area between southern Mexico and the Andes mountains in South America. It eventually spread south by local populations, and later by the Spanish and Portuguese explores who introduced it to the Caribbean, Europe, and Pacific islands.
There is archaeological evidence that chili peppers have been eaten for the last 9500 years in the Americas. It is believed they were first cultivated in the north-eastern region of modern day Mexico. It was later spread by Spanish explorers, and then to Asia by Portuguese traders, and became very valuable in Asian spice trade routes.
The tamarind originated in tropical Africa and grows wild in Sudan. It was introduced to the Americas in the 1600s. Tamarind is extracted from mature pods of the tree. It is a pulpy brown juicy substance that is sweet and sour, high in both acid and sugar.
Garlic originated in Central Asia, in modern day Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. However, garlic probably grew in more areas due to favourable climatic conditions and could have been found from China to India and Egypt to Ukraine. There is evidence that Egyptian and Indian cultures used garlic 5000 years ago, Babylonians 4500 years ago, and the Chinese 200 years ago.
Wild carrot seeds have been found in Europe as for a back as 5000 years ago. Domesticated carrots can be traced back to Persia (modern day Iran) and Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) 1000 years ago. However, it would have been purple or white with a thin root. It is believed a mutant strain occurred that caused the flesh to turn yellow, from which orange carrots were developed.
It is believed the peanut originated in South America. The archaeological record has peanut shaped pottery in South America dated to 3500 years ago. Inca’s burials along the western coast of South America often contained jars filled with peanuts, it is believed the peanuts were to provide sustenance for the afterlife. When the Spanish arrived, peanuts could be found as far north as Mexico, and they took back the legume to Spain, where it is still grown today. From Spain, traders introduced the peanut to Africa and Asia where in both places, the peanut has become in integral part of the local cuisine.
While the origin of the lime fruit is not known, it is believed that wild limes originated on the Indonesian archipelago or mainland Southeast Asia. Later, around 1000 years ago, Arabian traders took limes and lemons from India to eastern Mediterranean countries and Africa. Lime use then moved to the western Mediterranean by Crusaders about 800 to 700 years ago. Limes could later be found in West Indies, Mexico, and Florida from Christopher Columbus’ journeys in 1493.
Not much is known about the origin of the long bean, however it is believed that it came from Southeast Asia and is a variant of the cow pea, which originated in Africa.
The tomato originated in South America (along with potato, tobacco, and chili peppers). It advanced north, possibly due to changing climate conditions, and evidence of its use is found extensively throughout Mesoamerica (9000 to 400 years ago). Mesoamerica was a culturally defined region comprised of what is now known today as central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. The Aztecs (700 to 500 years ago) who lived in central Mexico domesticated the plant. It was later transported back to Europe by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, who discovered the plant after ransacking Tenochtítlan.
unique tools required
Thai mortar, or khrok (ครก), and the pestle, or sak/saak (สาก). Thai mortars and pestles come in three materials: granite, glazed terracotta, and wood. A granite mortar uses a granite pestle, while a wooden pestle is used in both the terracotta and wooden mortars. If you want to pound something into a paste, use a granite mortar, if you want to bruise or mix use the terracotta or wooden mortar.
Papaya shredder, used to shave stick slivers off of a green papaya, can also be used on a carrot.
REGIONAL VARIATIONS
THAILAND
Thai green papaya salad, called som tom, is composed of green papaya, cherry tomatoes, long bean, lime juice, Thai chilies, dried shrimp, and peanuts, and is flavoured by fish sauce and sugar. The dish is made through pounding the ingredients with a wooden mortar and pestle and then topping with peanuts.
LAOS
Laotian green papaya salad is called tam maak hoong, it contains similar vegetables as the Thai version, but padeak, a thick, pickled or fermented fish sauce and fermented crab dip (nam pu) are added as flavourings.
CAMBODIA
The Papaya in the Cambodian version of the dish, called bok l’hong is shredded and not pounded like in the Thai version. The rest of the salad is composed of tamarind, galangal, prohok (Cambodian fish paste), tomatoes, long beans, and Thai peppers with smoked fish, salted crabs, or grilled chicken.
VIETNAM
The Vietnamese version of the green papaya salad, called goi du du, usually has shrimp or meat added, some versions use jerky.
ingredients (serves 1 to 2 people)
1 cup shredded green papaya
1/4 cup shredded carrot
2 TBS of fish sauce
1 TBS of dried shrimp
3 or less Thai chilies. They register 50,000 – 100,000 on the scoville heat units (SHU) chart, as compared to a jalapeno, which has a 10,000 SHU rating.
1 TBS tamarind paste. Paste can be made by adding some water to a portion of one of these tamarind bricks you can buy at the store.
1 long bean cut into 1 inch pieces
1 1/4 TBS of juice from a lime
3 to 4 cherry tomatoes cut in half
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
3 TBS roasted chopped peanuts
2 TBS of palm sugar, which comes from the coconut palm tree
directions
To shred a green papaya using a knife, begin by making many long cuts in the flesh, then thinly slicing off the top layer into a bowl. Continue until you have enough
Or you can use a papaya peeler, I picked this one up in Thailand
Shredded papaya can be of differing sizes
Prepare other ingredients
Place all the papaya, beans, tomatoes, carrots, garlic, shrimp, pepper, sugar, fish sauce, lime juice, tamarind paste in the mortar and pound it up with the pestle
Top with chopped peanuts