CTV Recipes
Search Recipes
Vegetarian Pounded Corn & Cucumber Salad
Green papaya salad, or som tum, is Thailand’s most famous salad, but it’s just one of many types of tum, or pounded salads. Corn is a favorite non-papaya ingredient in a tum because the sweetness of the corn matches perfectly with the tart and spicy dressing. A tum usually contains fish sauce and dried shrimp, but I’ve made this one vegetar- ian, and it is just as fantastic. If you eat eggs, try it with the salted duck eggs, which add pops of creamy saltiness that I absolutely love.
YIELDS
Ingredients
- 1 large 8-inch (20 cm) ear of corn
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 to 2 Thai chillies, to taste
- 1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped palm sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup unsalted roasted peanuts, divided
- 2 1/2 tablespoons lime juice, rinds reserved
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 heaping cup julienned cucumber
- 1 cooked salted duck egg, cut into wedges (optional)
Directions
Bring a large pot of water to a boil, then add the corn and cook for 6 to 7 minutes. Allow it to cool enough to handle, then sliceoff the kernels with a knife, keeping them in large pieces as much as possible.
IF USING A MORTAR AND PESTLE
In a large salad mortar and pestle, pound the garlic and chilies into a fine paste. Add the palm sugar and pound until it’s dissolved into a thick paste.
Add about half of the peanuts and pound a few times to crush them a bit. Then add the tomatoes and crush gently to release someof their juices.
Add the lime juice and soy sauce, throwing in the rind of the juiced limes as well, if you wish. Use a large spoon to stir until it’s all well mixed and the sugar has completely dissolved into the dressing. At this point, if you are using a small mortar and pestle, transferthe salad to a mixing bowl. Otherwise finish mixing in the mortar.
Add the corn and cucumber and toss gently to mix, then transfer to a serving plate. Top with the remaining roasted peanuts, andserve with wedges of salted duck eggs, if desired.
.jpeg)
