Green Papaya Salad with Olive Oil-Lemongrass Poached Shrimp

Copyright 2010 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients

For shrimp
6 medium-sized shrimp, shelled and deveined
2-3 cups extra virgin olive oil
1 lemongrass, chopped
Salt for seasoning

For salad
1 medium green papaya, peeled and shredded into julienne strips (about 3-4 cups)
2 carrot sticks, shredded into julienne strips (about 1 cup)
1 T fresh mint, minced (reserve some for garnish)
1 T sesame seeds, toasted (reserve some for garnish)

For dressing
Juice from 2 to 3 limes
3 T fish sauce
2 T sugar
1 chili pepper, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, finely diced

Start by poaching your shrimp. Clean and season your shrimp pieces (retain the tail for appearance). In a small saucepan, warm the olive oil and toss in the lemongrass pieces and cook for about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low and throw in the shrimp and cook until opaque, about 5 minutes. Remove shrimp and place on paper towels to remove excess oil and refrigerate until ready to serve.

In a large bowl, whisk all the ingredients for the dressing. Then toss in the green papaya, carrots, mint and sesame seeds. Let sit for at least 10 minutes. When ready to serve, remove ingredients from large bowl and place on plates, then top with shrimp and garnish with sesame seeds and mint.

Makes 2 to 3 servings.

Pair with a glass of Torrontes wine (white wine from Argentina).

TIP: You can prepare your shrimp earlier and refrigerate until ready to eat. Same for the salad. In fact, it helps to let the green papaya sit in the dressing to soak up the taste. But when ready to serve, shake off excess dressing. Don’t serve the salad sitting in dressing.

GREEN PAPAYA: This really is a green papaya, and you mostly find them in Chinatown or Asian or Mexican grocery stores. Be sure to peel away the green skin and then eat only the flesh (toss out the seeds in the center).

HOT OIL: I like poaching the shrimp in olive oil because I feel the oil is healthier for you than butter, for example. But oil is used to fry things so you have to be careful not to turn up the heat on the oil or else you’ll fry up your lemongrass pieces or your shrimp. A low heat is the technique for poaching. You can even warm up the oil and poach your shrimp with the oil off the heat. Use enough oil to full submerge your shrimp. To save on oil, use a really small saucepan.