Papaya Sea Food Salad is one of my favorite dishes that I use to enhance a meal. The recipe is similar to the recipe for Papaya Green Salad, but with this recipe I use seafood. Most Thai people that I know eat this salad regularly with their meals.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups green papaya
1 cup seafood mix
2 each hotdog (cut into 1 inch slices)
6 medium cooked shrimp
½ cup carrots
1/3 cup yard-long green beans (other green beans may be substituted)
4 each dried chili peppers (fresh peppers may be substituted)
4 tbsp. fish sauce
2 tbsp. sugar
3 pieces garlic clove
1/3 cup roasted peanuts
½ cup cherry tomato (sliced in half)
3 cups water
3 tbsp. lime juice
1 tbsp. tamarind juice (lemon or lime juice may be substituted)

PREPARATION:

1. Boil 3 cups of water, then add the hotdogs, seafood mix and shrimp and boil for a few minutes. Drain the water and place of the contents from the pot into a bowl and set aside.
2. Peel and wash the green papaya and carrots, then shred them. Cut the yard-long green beans into 2 inches lengths and mix everything together with the papaya and carrots in a separate bowl.
3. Combine the chili peppers, garlic and 1/3 cup of papaya mix from above in a mortar and using a pestle crush them well. Then add the fish sauce, tamarind juice, lime juice, sugar and tomatoes. Crush them lightly with the pestle and mix them well. Next, add the rest of papaya mix from the bowl and crush everything together for a few minutes until well mixed. Add the contents from the bowl containing the seafood mix, hotdogs and shrimp and crush lightly for approximately 2 minutes to thoroughly mix them together.
4. Place on a plate and serve with napa, asian egg plant, lettuce or cabbage.
5. Garnish with roast peanuts.

Makes 3 servings

Tip: use only green (un-ripened) papaya.