Since I’ve a lot of strawberry left, I decided to try a new dish, its Som Tum and since I don’t have any papaya, I decided to substitute it with rutabaga (Thai/Lao people call it Ruba for short, it is believed to have originated from a hybrid between the turnip and wild cabbage) and instead of cherry tomato, I’m using strawberry instead. It’s very much like my Som Tum Going Inter post, but with strawberry, so I guess it is called Som Tum Strawberry Rutabaga.
The Ingredients: 2 peppers, 1 garlic clove, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 2-table spoons of mixed fish sauce and shrimp paste, sliced strawberries, and shredded rutabaga.
Here it is, Som Tum Strawberry Rutabaga…I think we can Som Tum almost anything.
And below is a photo of Som Tum Buk Houng (spicy papaya salad), a more traditional Lao dish.
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May 23, 2008 at 1:42 pm
ascandaloussin
yummm!! your som tum strawberry rutabaga looks really good! im still trying to figure out what a rutabaga is….
May 23, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Ginger
ascandaloussin, I got the idea of substituting the Rutabaga for Papaya from Koosang Koosom Thai Magazine, the article that I translated is called Som Tum Going Inter. Rutabaga is a hybrid between the turnip and wild cabbage, and it was discovered by Thai/Lao women that live abroad, they want to eat Som Tum but didn’t have papaya so they experiment with anything that they can get their hand on until they found this. They claimed that it’s crunchy, sweet, and when making into Som Tum, it has good aroma and flavor, which I do have to agree with them, it tastes real good. You can find it at your local supermarket, sounds a bit odd for Som Tum, I know.
May 24, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Bassak
Hi Ginger, this is off topic but I not sure if you have visited this site before-http://lao-ocean.com/. The blogger is a lady of Lao decent who lives in S. Korea. Just though you might be interested. Cheers!
May 25, 2008 at 8:02 am
Ginger
Hi Bassak, I visit her blog when I visit Laocook’s blog, she is on his blogroll, what I like best about her blog is the interesting places that she visits, I also used her photos for my Lao Textiles, Lao Silk post. But I’m wondering why you ask…
May 26, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Bassak
Nothing important really, I just wanted to share. But since you already know-then that’s great. cheers!
May 28, 2008 at 2:38 pm
K
It looks very delicious and weird at the same time. I suspect it tastes like a mix of sour-sweet-spicy. A Salad.
May 29, 2008 at 7:05 am
Ginger
K, I’m sure it doesn’t just look weird to you, but to Lao people as well, most people don’t combine and make Som Tum the two together, and most never heard of Rutabaga as a substitution for papaya. The strawberries were a bit sour, so it was sour and spicy, not so sweet, but I like it.
June 2, 2008 at 2:17 am
Salat
Interesting dish you’ve came up with Ginger. Looks very tasty! My favorite variation on Som Tum is barely ripe blackberries. They are a pain to pick, with the thorns and vines. But it’s making my mouth water just thinking about it
June 3, 2008 at 1:50 am
Ginger
Som Tum blackberries sounds good, I’ve never tried it before. It is a pain to pick, in our area, you can find them in the woods, or in the wooded part of the neighborhood. I need to try your Som Tum blackberries, made my mouth water just thinking about it also.
June 17, 2008 at 12:17 pm
UPDATE. « Introducing Lyn’s lakorn blog
[...] just love her food post. Who would have ever thought of making spicy salad (Som Tum) with strawberry and rutabaga? I have never even heard of it. To see it, it was such a [...]