Name: My Green Papaya Salad
Yield: Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro root (4 roots), rinsed, scraped, and rinsed again; 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger; 1 fresh Thai bird chili, or more to taste; 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic; 1/2 teaspoon minced shallot; 2 tablespoons palm or brown sugar, or more to taste; 1 tablespoon fish sauce, or more to taste; Juice of 3 limes, or more to taste; 4 Chinese long beans, trimmed; 1 cup loosely packed fresh Thai basil leaves; 1 cup loosely packed fresh Vietnamese mint (rau ram) leaves; 2 cups julienned peeled green (unripe) papaya; 2 cups julienned peeled cucumber; 1 cup julienned peeled green (unripe) mango; 2 cups julienned peeled ripe mango; 3/4 cup 1/2-inch-thick pineapple batons (size of a lady's pinkie); 3/4 cup julienned fresh long red chilies, such as Anaheim or Hungarian Wax; 3/4 cup lightly crushed salted roasted peanuts

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My Green Papaya SaladJori Emde

Every Southeast asian country has some variation of green papaya or mango salad. Since it doesn't taste like much (nice texture, though), it's all about the supporting cast as far as delivering flavor goes. And in this version there's such a big cast that you can lose one or two items and the salad will still taste real good. You can even lose the papaya (shhhh) and make it with all the other goodies. Just don't lose the fish sauce, palm sugar, lime juice, or chili—deal?

LISTEN
Mayafra Combo, "Iffilah Ha-Ha"—Sonnie Taylor from Trinidad backed up by some Italian musicians. Beautiful vocals and a moving jazz-funk vibe to keep you dancing and cooking.

DRINK
A tall glass of water a little cooler than room temp. Seriously.

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