Green Papaya Salad

Kaipo and I ventured to Hilo bright and early this morning to participate in the Big Island Roadrunners 5k run. Ugh. I hate running. And running with ONLY runners (about 40 of them) is not fun at all. The thought of possibly coming in last place kept me running more than I was comfortable with. Yay for Kajla who stuck with me. Or maybe she was using me to have a walking excuse. It took me 40 minutes, 1 sec. Damn that 1 second. And I sprinted at the end, too! Even if it was to beat out the old lady in front of me. I think I beat her by 1 second. I guess 40:01 is better than 40:02.

You cannot go to Hilo on a Saturday without stopping at the Hilo Open Market, one of my favorite places to buy my veggies and other goodies. Kaipo always wants a fresh lemonade and musubi. One elderly gentleman sells a wide variety of "prepped" goodies, right out of a bunch of coolers, including mango, sugar cane, coconut, cooked beets, and shredded green papaya. Of course, being in my "gotta keep healthy" mode, I opted to buy the papaya. The woman with him was more than happy to tell me the necessary ingredients for green papaya salad: garlic, chili pepper, fish sauce, and tomato. Check.

Came home and did a search on google to get several recipes. Here is what I ended up with:

3 cups shredded green papaya (although I might have had closer to 4 cups)
2 Tbsp. patis
1/2 tsp. sugar
2 Hawaiian chili pepper (USE ONE! Two turned out to be hot for us)
2 garlic cloves
2-3 Tbsp. lime juice
1 tomato, cut up (cherry tomatoes cut in half would be great to use but I just had a big ole tomato)
2 Tbsp. roasted peanuts, chopped

Using a mortar and pestle (first time I used mine), I crushed the garlic and chili peppers together. I'm certain you don't need to use the mortar action.

You can probably just smash the garlic and chili pepper using the side of a knife and add some chopping action. I'm all about the least amount of dishes to wash. Next put your green papaya and tomatoes in a big bowl, then add all of the ingredients (except for the nuts) and mix it up. I ended up just using my hands (yes, I washed first) to make sure that all the papaya got some sauce on it. I put the chopped peanuts on the side and everybody just sprinkled it on their individual plates.