Thai salads are categorized by the manner of preparation. One of the popular Thai salads is tum, which locally means “to pound”. Tum salads are prepared by pounding some ingredients in an orderly manner in a mortar and pestle. The pounding extracts the flavors and juices from the ingredients which will serve as the dressing of the salad. The rest of the ingredients are then mixed with the dressing. The most popular tum salad is som tum or green papaya salad. However, in areas where green papaya is hard to find or expensive, we have an equally delicious and healthy tum salad for you: tum tang kao poad or corn and cucumber salad. This salad has a perfect combination of flavors which Thai cuisine is known for: sweet, spicy, sour, salty, and bitter. This salad is incredibly easy to make. It is perfect to eat on its own or as a side dish to any of your favorite grilled or fried dishes.
Ingredients:
This recipe takes about 30 minutes to make. Serves 2.
• 1 ear sweet corn
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 Thai chilies
• 1 ½ tbsp shaved palm sugar
• ⅓ cup of long beans, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 heaping tbsp dried small shrimp
• 1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 lime
• 1 small tomato, cut into bite-sized wedges
• 1 cup of julienned cucumber
• 1 salted duck egg, cut into chunks
Instructions:
To cook the corn, bring enough water to a full boil in a large pot.
Add the corn and cook for 6 minutes on medium-high heat.
Remove the corn from the water, then sprinkle with salt.
Let the corn cool completely before slicing the kernels off the cob, then set aside.
Put garlic cloves and chilies in a huge mortar.
Using the pestle, pound until the garlic cloves and chilies are minced well.
Add palm sugar and continue pounding until you get a wet paste consistency.
Add long beans and dried shrimps.
Pound just until the beans and shrimps are lightly crushed.
Add fish sauce and tomatoes.
Cut the lime into quarters and squeeze the juice into the mortar.
After juicing, put the quartered lime into the mortar as well.
Alternately, gently pound using the pestle and mix using a large spoon just until the tomatoes are lightly crushed.
Add corn kernels and cucumbers and mix using a large spoon.
Add half of the salted duck egg and mix.
Transfer the salad into a serving dish and top off with the remaining salted duck egg.
Ideas And Tips:
If fresh corn on the cob is not available, you can use 165 grams of thawed frozen corn or canned corn kernels. Make sure that you drain them well before using.
You can substitute salted duck egg with hard-boiled egg, feta cheese or blue cheese.
You can substitute dried shrimps with dried anchovies, bonito flakes or shrimp paste.
Aside from corn, cucumber, and long beans, you can also use zucchini, pomelos, green papayas, jicama, mangoes, apples, radishes, celery stalks, carrots or mandarin orange slices.
If you don’t want to add the squeezed quartered lime to your salad, you can use the zest instead.
If you do not have a mortar and pestle at home, you can still make this salad. Mince the garlic cloves and Thai chilies and finely grate the palm sugar. Prepare the salad in a large mixing bowl and use a handheld potato masher, spatula or wooden spoon to crush the long beans, dried shrimp, and potato wedges.
images – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrJmCs9-7bY
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