Som Tam (Green Papaya Salad)

It is the most popular dish in Thailand.

Ingredients:

1 ½ tablespoons palm sugar

¾ lime

2 cups green papaya, shredded

6 green beans

1 clove garlic

1 ½ tablespoons fish sauce

1 tablespoon dried shrimp

2 chili peppers

5 cherry tomatoes

2 tablespoons peanuts, toasted

Preparation:

1. Use a clay mortar, wooden pestle and a spatula.
2. Smash a clove of garlic first into a clay mortar.
3. Then add green beans and  cherry tomatoes cut in half.
4. Pound a few times just to bruise the beans and get the juice out of the tomatoes.
5. Add chili peppers and crush them just enough to release the hotness, unless you like your salad really hot. Add the green papaya, dried shrimp, toasted peanuts, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar.
6. Use the pestle to push the mixture up in the mortar and the spatula to push it down so that the mixture is mixed well.