What to do with: Green Papaya

It's easy enough to find a ripe papaya in shops, but if you're lucky enough to chance upon the unripe fruit (imported from Fiji) at an outdoor market or Asian grocer's, snap it up! Select one for its firmness and shiny green skin. Green papaya is the key ingredient in the tantalising Thai dish, Som Tam (papaya salad, which literally translates as 'sour pounded'), and ripe fruit will not do here.

Som Tam is popular all over Thailand and in Thai restaurants around the world. The problem is, outside of tropical countries, green papaya tends to be substituted with carrot or apple - and it's just not the same. It's not that green papaya has a distinctive flavour; It's the absence of flavour which is more important, allowing it to carry the sour, salty, and sweet elements that make Som Tam such a flavour bomb. And where the others show their soft side, green papaya remains defiantly crunchy.

To make Som Tam, pound 2 - 3 cloves garlic and 1 - 2 hot red chilies in a large mortar and pestle. Add 3 - 4 small acid-free tomatoes, quartered, and a handful raw green beans, trimmed to 4cm lengths, and pound some more. Add juice 2 limes and 1 tsp shrimp paste or a few dried shrimps (optional). Shred or grate in the flesh of 1 green papaya and pound it all again, using a large spoon as well as the pestle to mix it all. Finally, mix in 2 Tbsp good fish sauce and 2 Tbsp palm sugar (dissolved in boiling water or grated finely), and taste to check the flavour balance. If it needs more of something, add it. Top with crushed roasted peanuts and serve with barbecued chicken and stick rice.