Vietnamese Green Papaya Salad

There is hardly anything better in my book than Vietnamese food. The complexity of the flavors and freshness of ingredients are things that I look for in good Vietnamese cuisine. I rarely cook Vietnamese food at home, choosing instead to patron a local restaurant where I can get authentic Vietnamese food for nominal prices, but unfortunately I haven't found my go-to place here in Chicago yet. While living in Seattle I ate at my favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Thien Phat, at least once a week, it's making my mouth water right now just thinking about it!  

But for those of you who might like to try Vietnamese food at home this is a great first recipe. It's simple to make and absolutely delicious. I learned to make it in the beautiful city of Hoi An in the central region of Vietnam. I took a great cooking class at the Morning Glory cooking school from Ms Vy who also wrote a cookbook, Taste Vietnam: The Morning Glory Cookbook. The flavors in this salad are amazing; so distinctly Vietnamese but easy to make which is saying a lot because so many Vietnamese dishes are very complex and take a lot of time to prepare and cook. This is a dish you can whip together with relative ease and find the ingredients without too much hassle.

You can also make this dish using green mangoes and it's just as tasty. You want to make sure you pick green fruit that is under ripe because it will hold up as a salad better. Plus, the riper it is the more juices it releases which would make for a watery salad and thats no good. 

Most Vietnamese would eat this salad atop shrimp crackers which you can purchase at any Asian market already made or buy them in a package and cook them at home which is also fun to do. I remember when I was little waiting for the oil to heat up and then dropping in the hard discs only to watch them transform in seconds right before my eyes into a delicious chip. I would eat so many my tummy would ache....things haven't changed too much since then.

I began this dish by deep frying some shallots. I sliced them thinly with a mandolin then coated them in flour before frying in hot oil. It took no more than a minute to fry them to a golden brown, be sure not to over cook! Then I drained them on paper towels and seasoned with salt while they were hot. You can keep these shallots stored in an air tight container and use the leftovers on top of soups- yum! If you don't feel like frying shallots then pound some peanuts into small pieces and use them in place of the shallots, it's just as tasty. Consider adding tofu, shrimp, or chicken to make it more hearty. 

Now grab your chopsticks and get to the kitchen! I promise this won't disappoint.

 

Vietnamese Green Papaya Salad

1 medium green papaya, finely sliced
1 cup onion, finely sliced
1 cup mint, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon red chili pepper
5 garlic gloves
2 tablespoons fried shallots

Rice crackers to serve

In a large bowl add papaya, onion, mint, 1 teaspoon sesame seeds, lime juice, fish sauce, and oil together. In a mortar and pestle pound the garlic and red chili pepper together to release and blend the flavors. Add garlic and red chili to bowl and mix ingredients well.  Serve in a bowl and garnish with sesame seeds, fried shallots, and remaining mint. Serve with rice crackers.

 

I used this handy dandy little tool I purchased in Thailand to get my papaya perfectly sliced, since this isn't a common kitchen tool in the states consider using a mandolin to get your slices consistant then chop them lengthwise to get the matchstick thinness.