Green Papaya Salad

Green papaya salad is healthy and tastes hot, sweet and sour equally, includes the crunch of peanuts.




Ingredients:

• Grated raw papaya- 1 cup
• Garlic cloves- 4
• Grated ginger- ½ tbsp
• Green or red chilli – 1 to 2 as per your choice
• Chili flex- 1 tsp
• Grated jaggery or brown sugar- 1 tbsp
• Lemon juice- 1 ½ tbsp
• Soy sauce- 1 tbsp
• Sesame oil- 1 tsp (optional)
• Tomato- 1
• Cucumber- 1 small (optional)
• Peanuts, roasted, peeled & crushed- 2 tbsp
• Chopped fresh coriander, finely chopped- 2 tbsp
• Sea salt- to taste
• Microwave roasted Beaten Rice square papdam (Pohyache Mirgund)- 10 (optional:my addition)

Method:

• Peel the papaya and grate with the help of big hole grater and soak in ice cold water. 
• Remove seeds of tomato and cut julienne.
• Peel and chop the cucumber.
• In a mortar, lightly pound the garlic, add the chilies, ginger, salt and lightly pound again. 
• Add the jaggery, lemon juice, soy sauce, pound to a paste.
• Add the roasted peanuts and lightly pound while stirring once in a while with a spoon to prevent the paste from thickening. 
• Add the tomato julienne and lightly pound and mix with spoon again. 
• Add the shredded papaya and chopped cucumber, lightly pound and stir until all the ingredients have combined well. 
• Arrange on a serving dish and garnish with crushed peanuts, chilli flex, julienne of ginger and coriander. Serve chilled with microwave roasted Beaten Rice square papdam (Pohyache Mirgund).

Notes:

• Thai mortar and pestle is made from wood or clay. But we Indians mostly have metal or stone mortar and pestle. There is one trick...we can use wooden roti press or belan instead of wooden or earthen pestle. Thus we can pound softly.
• Don’t pound too much as it will become a pasty salad. The juliennes should hold shape while combining with the rest of the ingredients. 
• If you do not have a mortar, just crush garlic, chillis and add them to a bowl. Add the soya sauce, lemon juice and jaggery followed by green papaya, cucumber and tomato juliennes along with roasted peanuts and combine well with hands by crushing.

Variations:

• You can also add some raw mango juliennes, grated carrots or bean sprouts for variation.
• You can add 1 tbsp tamarind pulp, if you are not using raw mango and you like to eat sourer. But do balance with soy sauce.
• Thai people use Shrimp paste in this salad. There is one trick...we can use dried shrimp/prawns (sode). Wash sode and saute in little oil. Grind into paste with salt.
• You can add fried baby shrimp or cubed fried tofu.
• You can use fish sauce instead of soy sauce & lemon juice.
• You can use honey instead of jaggery.