Green Pawpaw Papaya Salad With Seafood

GREEN PAPAYA SALAD

Steps:

• Combine garlic, chiles, and green beans into a mortar and pound roughly. Add the papaya and pound again, to bruise the ingredients. Stir in fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar and pound again. Ad the tomato and pound to combine. Stir in the chopped peanuts and serve.
• If you don't have a mortar and pestle, you can make a version of this in your blender or food processor: coarsely chop the garlic, chile peppers, and green beans. Mix in the papaya, and pulse a few times. Mix in the tomato, fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar. Pulse to combine; salad should still have texture. Transfer to a serving dish and stir in the peanuts.

GREEN PAWPAW (PAPAYA) SALAD WITH SEAFOOD

Steps:

• First prepare all the ingredients as described above - keep any ends and trimmings of garlic, shallots, coriander root, lemon grass, mint and coriander stalks, and odd bits of lemon grass and a couple of spare kaffir lime leaves aside to flavour the water you're going to cook the seafood in.
• Next, make the dressing as it has to sit for at least 15 minutes for the flavours to merge.
• To make dressing, mix together all ingredients and taste to ensure there is a good balance of hot, sour, sweet and salty - adjust ingredients as necessary.
• Now prepare to cook the seafood.
• Using a very sharp knife, score the inside of the squid tubes diagonally, then score in the opposite direction (to form a diamond pattern).
• Cut the squid into rough triangle shapes - about 4 per tube.
• Prepare a medium bowl of ice cold water, with ice cubes in it, and sit it by the stove.
• Fill a large pot with water and add ends and trimmings as described above and a couple of tablespoons of salt.
• Bring water to a rolling boil then add the seafood in small batches, cooking prawns for about a minute, and squid for about 30 seconds. (The seafood can be a bit hard to find in the water, so just add a little at a time, and you'll have to 'fish' for it.)
• Remove seafood and immediately plunge into iced water. This cooking technique will make the squid so tender you won't believe it!
• When seafood is completely cold, prepare salad.
• In a large bowl toss together pawpaw, shallots, coriander, mint leaves, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, seafood and 1/4 cup of the hot and sour dressing (serve any remaining dressing on the side).
• To present salad, transfer to a plate, bring most of the seafood to the top and arrange decoratively, then sprinkle with crushed peanuts and crispy shallots.

GREEN PAPAYA SALAD WITH GRILLED PRAWNS

Steps:

• In a large heavy bowl, or mortar and pestle, combine the chiles and garlic with a spoon, pressing down gently to break them down slightly. Add the papaya and mix, again pressing down to soften the shreds. Add the carrots and crab or shrimp and toss. Add the sugar, salt, fish sauce, and lime juice and toss well. Add the cherry tomatoes and toss to combine. Set aside.
• Preheat grill. Using a sharp knife, cut through the shell to make a slit down the back of each prawn, leaving the shell on. Thread 2 prawns onto each skewer. Brush the prawns with oil and place on the hot grill. Grill for 1 to 2 minutes per side, or until just cooked through.
• Transfer the salad to a serving platter or individual plates, top with the grilled prawns, and garnish with lime wedges.

GREEN PAPAYA SALAD WITH SHRIMP

Steps:

• In a small saucepan of boiling salted water cook shrimp 45 seconds to 1 minute, or until cooked through. In a colander drain shrimp and rinse under cold water to stop cooking. Halve shrimp horizontally and devein.
• Make dressing:
• In a large bowl whisk together dressing ingredients until sugar is dissolved.
• Add shrimp, papaya, carrot, and coriander to dressing, tossing well. Salad may be made 2 hours ahead and chilled, covered. Bring salad to room temperature before serving.
• Serve salad sprinkled with peanuts.

GREEN PAPAYA SALAD

Steps:

• Wash the shrimp with salted cold water.
• Drain and set aside.
• Boil water in a medium sauce pan.
• When the water begins to boil put the piece of pork in the sauce pan and simmer over medium heat for at least 30 minutes until cooked through.
• Drain and set aside.
• When it's cool, julienne cut into long thin 2-inch strips.
• In another sauce pan, boil water.
• When the water is boiling, put the shrimp in and cook for 5 minutes.
• Drain the shrimp, split in half and set aside.
• Soak the shredded green papaya in a large bowl of cold water with 1 teaspoon of salt.
• Let it sit for 10 minutes; then rinse and drain it well.
• Use a cheesecloth to squeeze out the water from the shredded papaya.
• Add pork, shrimp (save a few shrimp to decorate the top of salad), fish sauce dip, and toss.
• To make fish sauce dip simply combine the ingreidents listed and mix well.
• To serve: Put the salad on a plate and arrange the cooked shrimp on top, sprinkle the top with coriander, and basil or mint, and chopped peanuts.
• Guests can use shrimp crackers to scoop up the salad to eat.
• A second method of serving: use finely shredded beef jerky instead of pork and shrimp.
• The rest of the preparations are the same.