Green papaya salad with coconut rice

Method

1. Using a large pestle and mortar, pound the chillies and garlic to a paste.

2. Add the sugar and dried shrimps and pound once again to mix everything together.

3. Stir in the tomatoes and chopped snake bean, and lightly bruise with the pestle.

4. Spoon in the tamarind pulp, lime juice and fish sauce - the mixture should have a sweet, sour and hot flavour.

5. Add the peanuts and green papaya and pound a little more to break up the peanuts and bruise the papaya. Set aside.

6. Stir the coconut milk into the rice and season with salt and sugar.

7. Transfer the papaya salad to a dish and serve straight away with the coconut rice. Garnish with a soft-boiled egg and the sliced apple.

8. This dish goes particularly well with tempura. In South East Asia, betel-nut leaves (available from specialist stores in the UK) are dipped in tempura batter and deep-fried.