Tam Mak Hoong

the Lao pounded green papaya salad: fiercer, funkier and less sweet than its Thai cousin, built on padaek and black crab rather than peanuts and sugar

Origin: Vientiane & Laos

From the journey of Chilli Pepper.

Tam means to pound and mak hoong is the green papaya, and the dish is made to order in a tall clay mortar in a rhythm anyone who has stood near a Lao market has heard: chillies and garlic crushed first, then the seasonings, then shredded papaya bruised rather than broken with alternating strokes of pestle and spoon. It is the same dish as Thai som tam and it is not the same dish, and Lao people are firm about the difference. The Thai version leans sweet and nutty, with palm sugar, dried shrimp, roasted peanuts, and bottled fish sauce. The Lao version leans salty, sour, and funky: padaek instead of nam pla, often a whole salted black field crab pounded in shell and all, more chilli by a considerable margin, and little or no sugar and no peanuts. The Isan region of north-eastern Thailand, which is ethnically Lao, cooks it the Lao way and calls it tam lao to distinguish it on a Thai menu. The pounding is a technique rather than a formality. The papaya is struck to bruise the shreds so they take up the dressing, not to crush them, and the spoon in the other hand turns the mortar between strokes. Over-pounded papaya goes limp and watery; under-pounded, it stays crisp and tastes of nothing. Papaya itself is a New World fruit, carried into Southeast Asia by Spanish and Portuguese shipping in the sixteenth century, and so is the chilli that dominates the dish. A salad that reads as the most characteristically Lao thing on any table is built on two American plants that arrived within a century of each other, which is a reasonable illustration of how quickly a cuisine can absorb something and make it its own.

Ingredients

Salad

  • 600 g green unripe papaya, peeled and coarsely shredded
  • 2 long beans, cut into 3cm lengths
  • 2 tomatoes, in wedges
  • 1 small aubergine, thinly sliced (optional)

Pounding

  • 10 red and green bird's eye chillies, or to taste
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 2 salted black field crabs, or 1 tbsp fermented shrimp paste (optional)

Dressing

  • 3 tbsp padaek, strained, or 2 tbsp fish sauce
  • 3 tbsp lime juice
  • 1 tsp palm sugar (optional, and Lao cooks often omit it)

To finish

  • 1 handful mint and coriander leaf

To serve

  • 4 portions of khao niao (sticky rice), to serve

Method

  1. Shred the green papaya coarsely, ideally by holding the peeled fruit and chopping into it rapidly with a knife before slicing the cuts free, which gives ragged shreds that hold dressing better than a grater does.
  2. Pound the chillies and garlic together in a tall mortar to a rough paste. Start here so the heat gets into everything that follows.
  3. Add the salted crab if using and crack it, shell and all, then work in the padaek, lime juice, and sugar if using.
  4. Add the long beans and pound a few times to bruise and split them.
  5. Add the tomato wedges and aubergine and press them just enough to release their juice without pulping them.
  6. Add the papaya a handful at a time. Pound with the pestle in one hand and turn the mixture up from the bottom with a spoon in the other, alternating.
  7. Bruise rather than crush. Fifteen or twenty strokes per handful is plenty; the shreds should soften and take colour from the dressing whilst still holding their shape.
  8. Taste as you go and adjust. It should land salty and sour first, hot immediately after, and barely sweet at all.
  9. Fold in the herbs at the very end with the spoon rather than the pestle.
  10. Serve at once with sticky rice. It does not keep, since the papaya weeps within the hour.

Notes

Padaek is what makes this Lao rather than Thai, and it is coarser and stronger than bottled fish sauce; strain it if you prefer, but do not leave it out and replace it with sugar. Ten chillies is a moderate Lao quantity and a fierce one by most other standards, so start lower if unsure. Bruise the papaya, do not pulp it. A tall clay mortar with a wooden pestle is the right tool and a heavy stone mortar will crush rather than bruise; at a pinch, use a bowl and the end of a rolling pin. Green papaya is sold by Southeast Asian grocers; the fruit must be entirely unripe, white to pale green inside and without a trace of orange.

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