Thai Green Papaya Salad (Vegan Recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 48: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: 1 Cuisine -- 3 Dishes

Dish: Thai Cuisine -- Thai Green Papaya Salad
My theme for this week's blogging marathon is pick 1 cuisine and cook 3 dishes. Valli gave us 4 countries to choose from and I went back and forth between Arabian and Thai cuisines, but finally ended up picking Thai. So for the next 3 days I will be posting 3 different courses of Thai dishes.

Today is a very famous Thai salad made with Green Papaya. My husband used to travel to Thailand quite frequently and he had nothing but praise for this Green Papaya salad. He tasted them at many street vendors and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. We were at a party in a Thai restaurant recently where they served Green Papaya salad, it looked amazing but had dried shrimp and fish sauce in it, so we couldn't taste it. But it definitely inspired me to make the salad right away at home.

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Boppayakaya Kura: Green Papaya Curry

I’ve never cooked with boppayakaya (green papaya) until I had my son. It is supposed to be really healthy and good for nursing moms. Papaya tastes almost like sorakaya (doodhi) or bengaluru vankaya (chayote squash), but it does not have the crisp texture. Raw papayas can be a little hard to chop, but other than that they are very easy to work it. We get raw papayas in Indian stores and even in the farmers market here in NJ.

Ingredients:
Boppayakaya (Green Papaya) – 1 medium, chopped into ½ “pieces
Green chilies – 2
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
Sesame – Red Chili powder – 2tbsp*
Curry leaves – 4**
Salt – to taste
Oil – 1tbsp

Method:

• Microwave the papaya pieces with ½ cup water until tender (it took about 6 mins in my mw).
  
• Heat oil in a sauté pan, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds; after the seeds splutter add curry leaves and green chilies.
  
• Then add the microwaved boppayakaya, turmeric, sesame powder and salt. Cover and cook for 5 minutes for the flavors to mingle.
  
• Uncover and increase the heat to medium-high and cook for 2-3 minutes, until the pieces turn slightly golden brown around the edges.
  
• Serve hot with rice and sambar.
  

Boppayakayakura also tastes yummy sautéed with the same way with just some curry powder.

* Sesame-Chili powder: Dry roast 1/2 cup sesame seeds with 6 red chilies until they are slightly golden. Grind into smooth powder with little salt. This can be used in curries with potlakaya (snake gourd), beerakaya (ridge gourd) or bottle (sorakaya gourd).

** I did not buy curry leaves for the past one and half months. Twice the quality was poor and last week, they had about 10 leaves in the packet for 99 cents. I didn't miss them too much and then I thought it was just me, but I read this at Jugalbandi and I guess curry leaves are dispensable in an Indian kitchen.