To Cut the Papaya

The original recipe called for julienned papaya, which is quite time consuming to accomplish with a knife. If you have a food processor, grater, kiwi shredder, or mandolin, you can make your life a lot easier. However, I did it old school. Here’s my process: 

1. Cut off the very top of the papaya, then peel the whole thing with a vegetable peeler or a sharp paring knife. 
2. Cut the papaya in half and remove the seeds.
3. Cut the papaya into a few pieces lengthwise, so that each piece is smooth on the inside, then use your vegetable peeler to peel off the inside part, so that all that’s left is smooth papaya flesh. 
4. Cut each piece, lengthwise, into 1/4-in wide strips. 
5. With your knife at an angle, cut these strips into very thin slices, as thin as you can make them. 

For the Sauté 

1. Preheat a large ceramic pan to medium-high. When it’s hot add a drizzle of olive oil to coat the pan. 
2. Add the onion slices and jalapeño and cook, stirring, until the onion starts to caramelize and turn golden in color. 
3. Add the culantro and papaya and a few pinches of salt. Turn the heat to medium-low and cook until all the papaya pieces turn translucent. This will depend on the size of your papaya pieces and your pan. For me, this process took 15-20 minutes, but in the cookbook version with julienned papaya, it took 3-4 minutes. 
4. When all the papaya is cooked remove from the heat.

 Assembling the Tacos

1. Heat a dry pan to medium (or use the pan that just cooked the papaya). 
2. Lay a premade tortilla onto the pan and heat until it just starts to brown. Flip and brown the other side slightly. 
3. Repeat with all tortillas (this recipe uses about seven). 
4. To assemble the tacos, scoop the green papaya mixture onto the tortillas and top with whatever you desire. 
5. Squeeze a slice of lime onto your taco and enjoy!