SICILIAN LYCHEE & ROOT VEGETABLE SOM TAM WITH JOHN CHANTARASAK, ANGLOTHAI

SICILIAN LYCHEE & ROOT VEGETABLE SOM TAM

Ingredients

2 Thai bird’s eye chillies
1 plump garlic clove
1 tablespoon palm sugar
2 tablespoons tamarind concentrate
2 tablespoon fish sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice (1 regular lime)
300g thinly shredded (julienne) root vegetables, such as carrot, radish and kohlrabi
40g tomatoes
6 Sicilian lychees, peeled and stoned
2 tablespoons roasted hazelnuts (or other nut)

Method

1. Using a pestle and mortar, pound the chillies and garlic together into a rough paste, then add the palm sugar and continue to pound into a paste. Add the tamarind concentrate, fish sauce and lime juice, stirring well to give yourself a dressing for the salad. It will taste spicy, sweet and sour with a seasoned salty finish.

2. Add the shredded vegetables (I used rainbow carrots, red meat radish and kohlrabi), tomatoes and lychees. Gently but with some authority, crush and tumble the ingredients with the dressing, the idea is not only to mix the ingredients together but to pound them so the cell structures of the vegetables are broken and bruised so they absorb more of the dressing. Once well mixed and pounded together, add the roasted hazelnuts and give everything a final mix and tumble together so well combined.

3. Transfer the som tam to a serving dish with all of the dressing.