Bok L’hong

Ingredients

Salad

• 1green unripe papaya, about 600 g
• 4long beans, cut into 4 cm lengths
• 1tomato, cut into wedges
• 2 clovesgarlic
• 2bird’s eye chillies, more to taste
• 2 tbspdried shrimp, soaked 10 min and drained

Dressing

• 2 tbsppalm sugar
• 3 tbsplime juice
• 2 tbspfish sauce
• 1 tspprahok, the Khmer fermented fish paste

To finish

• 3 tbsproasted peanuts, roughly crushed
• a handful of Thai basil or mint leaves

Directions

1. Peel the papaya, then hold it in one hand and tap the flesh repeatedly with the tip of a heavy knife to score it deeply, before shaving off long shreds with the blade held flat. A box grater gives short, wet, limp pieces, and the salad depends on long crisp ones.
2. Drop the shreds into a bowl of ice water for 15 minutes, then drain them and spin or pat them completely dry. This is what makes the papaya snap rather than sag.
3. Pound the garlic and chillies to a rough paste in a deep clay or wooden mortar. Rough rather than smooth: you want bursts of heat, not an evenly hot dressing.
4. Add the palm sugar and pound until it dissolves into the paste, then stir in the lime juice, fish sauce and prahok.
5. Taste the dressing on its own. It should read sour first, then salty, then sweet, in that order. The Khmer version is markedly less sweet and more fermented than its Thai cousin, and the prahok is exactly what makes the difference.
6. Add the long beans and tomato wedges and give them three or four light pounds, just enough to split and bruise them so they take up the dressing. Crushing them turns the salad to pulp.
7. Add the papaya shreds and the drained dried shrimp, then toss with the pestle in one hand and a spoon in the other, lifting from the bottom and pounding only two or three times.
8. Add the peanuts and herbs, toss once more, and serve immediately. Green papaya starts weeping within 20 minutes of meeting salt, and the salad slackens as it sits.

Technique

• The mortar is a mixing tool here, not a grinding one. Everything after the garlic paste is bruised, not pounded.
• Green papaya means genuinely unripe: hard, pale, with white seeds. A half-ripe one will not shred and tastes soapy.
• Prahok is pungent in the jar and disappears into the background in the bowl. Use it.

Substitutions

• Green mango, shredded the same way, for a sharper salad.
• Anchovy paste in place of prahok, which is the nearest supermarket equivalent.
• An extra tablespoon of fish sauce if you would rather leave the prahok out entirely.

Variations

• With salted crab pounded into the dressing, the version sold along the road to Kampot.
• With a hard-boiled egg quartered over the top.
• Served alongside grilled beef skewers as part of a shared meal.

History

The Khmer version of the pounded papaya salads found across mainland South-East Asia, often with salted crab.

Frequently asked questions

What is Bok L’hong?

Bok L’hong is a salad & side from Cambodia: green papaya pounded with lime, garlic, chilli and fermented fish or dried shrimp. The Khmer version of the pounded papaya salads found across mainland South-East Asia, often with salted crab.

How long does Bok L’hong take to make?

Bok L’hong takes 30 min of preparation and no cooking at all. The recipe makes 4 servings. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Bok L’hong?

Yes, within limits. Green mango, shredded the same way, for a sharper salad. Anchovy paste in place of prahok, which is the nearest supermarket equivalent. An extra tablespoon of fish sauce if you would rather leave the prahok out entirely.

What is the most important thing to get right in Bok L’hong?

Drop the shreds into a bowl of ice water for 15 minutes, then drain them and spin or pat them completely dry. This is what makes the papaya snap rather than sag.