Green Papaya Salad with Beef Jerky

The green papaya salad is the most popular in Asian cuisines. Each Asian country has its own version of making this salad, and one can see the differences in the dressing and the accompanying cooked pork, shrimp, dried shrimp, anchovies, or beef jerky. My Vietnamese green papaya salad or a "goi du du bo kho" is my favorite one of all the Vietnamese salads. There are two ways to prepare the dressing for this salad, and the easier one uses the Vietnamese dipping sauce made with a good fish sauce, garlic, hot chili and sweetened with sugar and lemon to each individual's taste. The other more difficult one to prepare, which I much prefer, is a little more time consuming but well worth the time spent. I will share the recipe here.
Ingredients:
Dressing:
1 can coco soda
1 can tamarind sauce (nuoc me chua)
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1/4 cup chili sauce (tuong an pho)
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbs good fish sauce
A few dry hot chilies, broken up
Salad:
1 green papaya, peeled, seeded and shredded
1 cup pickled daikon, carrots with juice
2 cups julienned beef jerky
1/2 cup panfried anchovies (optional)
Garnish
Fresh garlic, minced
Fresh hot chili, thinly sliced
Fresh basil, julienned
Roasted peanuts, chopped
Crispy fried shallots
Scallion, green part only, chopped

Directions:
Peel green papaya with a vegetable peeler.

Remove seeds and membranes and wash with cold water very well.

In a food processor, use the shredded plate to shred the papaya to moderately thin.

 Place the shredded papaya in cold water for 20 minutes. Drain papaya and use a kitchen towel to squeeze out all excess water.
To make the dressing: in a saucepan over medium heat, bring all the dressing ingredients to simmer. Let the liquid summer for 15 minutes. The dressing can be drained after that and kept refrigerated for months.
In another sauté pan over medium heat, stir fry the dried anchovies with 1 tsp of olive oil for 5 minutes or until they become crispy.

To serve salad:
Place 1 to 2 cups of papaya onto the plate. Top with julienned beef, 2 tbs dried anchovies, 1/4 cup pickled daikon-carrots, 2 tbs chopped roasted peanut, green onions and basil. Accompany with 1/2 cup of dressing. Add garlic and hot chili.