Green Papaya Salad with Prawn and Pork

The boyfriend and I have been watching a lot of Luke Nguyen in the past couple of weeks and after every episode, it made us hungry. It also made me want to cook the dishes he made on his show. 

So...two Fridays ago, I made one of his dishes. Surprisingly, it turned out better than I expected, it was very fresh and the green papaya was crisp combined with all the different herbs made it oh so much healthier to eat :) One downside was that we underestimated how spicy my garden chillies were and was suffering for a bit.

INGREDIENTS
1 green papaya (180g), peeled & finely julienne
200g cooked pork belly, finely sliced
200g cooked medium tiger prawns, peeled, de-veined and sliced in half lengthways
5 green mint leaves, finely sliced
5 Asian basil leaves, finely sliced
5 perilla leaves, finely sliced
5 coriander leaves, finely sliced
1 tablespoon fried red Asian shallots
1 tablespoon crushed roasted peanuts
1/2 teaspoon fried garlic chips
1 chilli, chopped
3 tablespoons dipping fish sauce

DIPPING SAUCE
3 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons white vinegar 
2 tablespoons sugar
125ml water
2 garlic cloves
1 chilli, chopped
2 tablespoons lime juice

1. To make the fish dipping sauce, combine fish sauce, vinegar, sugar and water into a saucepan and place on medium heat. Stir well and cook until just before boiling point is reached, then allow to cool. To serve, finely chop the garlic and chilli and stir through with the lime juice. Makes 250ml.
2. In a large bowl, combine the green papaya, pork belly, sliced herbs, dipping fish sauce and mix well.
3. Turn out onto a serving platter and arrange the prawns on top of the green papaya salad.
4. Garnish with fried shallots, peanuts and chilli. 

TIP
Submerge the julienne green papaya in cold water for 4 minutes then drain. This keeps the crisp texture of the green papaya.

I strongly recommend any salad lover to give this recipe a go, it's a really refreshing salad and one that I can eat non-stop.

Enjoy!