Growing up in Trinidad, my grandmother had at any given time about 14 mouths to feed. I am not kidding you! She had 11 boys and girls, plus my sister, brother and myself and any of her children that was already married and would pop in to eat from time to time.
She would come up with the weirdest food to eat. Actually we grew our own rice. What you call wild rice here, my grandparents grew back home and we literally ate wild rice 7 days a week! I will not eat wild rice today.
We had greed bananas, sautéed with onions and garlic and peppers. That was actually pretty good and I still crave that today. Another dish she used to make was sautéed green papaya, and she would add a little sailfish to it and eat it with roti.
If you have never cooked papaya, it melts just like pumpkin or squash. The taste is very similar as well. The papaya must be green however. The seeds has to be white on the inside. A ripe papaya will have black seeds.
For this Papaya Salad you must use a green papaya. You can also add in a green mango. I added carrots to bring in some color. This salad was so refreshing and crunchy. It pairs well with a rice piece of meat like steak or even a risotto.
You can find green Papayas in any Asian grocery stores in your area. Give it a try and let me know how it came out for you!
Click here for Spicy Green Papaya Salad recipe.
