Green Papaya Salad

One of my favorite salads is a green mango or green papaya salad (although I have to give green mangoes the edge). You usually see the dish on Vietnamese or Thai menus. I'd never really thought of making it at home until I saw a pile of green papayas at the store the other day. Well, why not?

Plenty of reasons, as it turned out. Green papayas are big. Like the size of butternut squash. And they get sort of wet and slimy. Peeling one is not an easy task. And trying to cut a large papaya into long strips, as required for a salad, is hard. Green papayas can't be easily managed with a knife. I ended up using my Japanese slicer, getting the papayas into the thinnest slices possible before hand cutting the strips. It took more than half an hour.

An easier way, if you're a master, is to chop it up with a knife while holding it in one hand. I posted a video of that technique below. Really an amazing thing to behold.

I didn't use the recipe posted on the video; I used a really delicious recipe I found at The Passionate Eater.

So what does green papayas taste like? When a friend asked me this, I wasn't sure what to say. Green papayas are basically unripened papayas, so they only have the vaguest papaya taste and are much more chewier. I wouldn't eat it plain, but somehow in a salad with a very fragrant and pungent dressing, they became addictive. The Passionate Eater describes the salad as a kind of slaw, and it definitely is a dish in which the sum transcends the parts.

Thai Eggplant

I really love Thai eggplants. They're small, sweet and perfect for curries. The problem is that you often have to get a package of two dozen or more. That's a lot of eggplants. So what do you do with them all? I decided to deep-fry half a dozen. In a nice light batter I adapt from Marcella Hazan*: flour, salt and water — enough water to make the dough pour like sour cream. I cut up the eggplants into quarters, dipped them lightly in batter and deep-fried for about five minutes in pretty hot temperature. To keep the deep-fried eggplants hot, I parked them in a 350 degree oven, which made them even nicer. Sorta like french fries. I'd definitely give this dish a solid A. But how can you go wrong with deep-frying?

*BTW, USA Today once took Marcella Hazan to Olive Garden for her take on the chain's "Italian" cooking efforts. It's a pretty funny article.

Green Papaya Shredder

Wow! This woman shreds green papayas in her hand with just a knife!

The Grid by SiliconeZone

This is a picture of my new love.


It's called The Grid and it's a potholder, trivet and jar opener. Made from InSILate, this potholder is safe to 675 degrees.

Now, I've been searching for a good potholder for years. I really don't like the traditional cloth ones because they're too clumsy and get really grungy (The Grid is dishwasher safe). So when the first silicone mitts and holders came into the market, I was really excited. But, unfortunately, they didn't live up to the hype. While they were wonderfully flexible and had a fantastic grip, they didn't give you much heat protection. With the one I have, after three seconds of holding onto something really hot, I get burned. Why can't they make one that's doubly thick, I've always complained. Well, The Grid is more than a quarter of an inch thick. Great heat protection with fantastic flexibility. And it comes in lots of different colors. Of course, it's not cheap — around $8, but hopefully it'll last me for years and years. There's also a mitt but it's half the width so I'm not really sure how well it protects you. Unfortunately, sometimes you do really need a mitt so I think I'll go and buy one.