Tom Yum Goong (Spicy Prawn Soup with Fresh Herbs)

Tom Yum or rather Tom Yum Goong as its widely known is definitely one of my favourite soups. Tom Yum is a name for two very much alike soups originating from Thailand (Thai tom yum) and Laos (Lao tom yum). Lao tom yum is relatively unknown outside of Laos whereas Thai tom yum is widely served in the neighbouring countries and has been popularized  around the world.

Though this soup is widely served here, only a few restaurants can produce a good and authentic tasting tom yum. For those who has been to Thailand and tasted the real deal , that taste will serve as a benchmark for you whenever you step into any restaurants serving Thai tom yum.  

Ingredients

ROASTED CHILLI PASTE (NAM PRIK PAO)
* 40g (1/2 cup) dried red chillies
* 30g unpeeled whole shallots
* 30g unpeeled whole garlic cloves
* 50g dried shrimp powder
* 2 tbsp shrimp paste
* 2 tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar
* 2 tbsp fish sauce (nam pla)
* 2 tbsp tamarind paste
* 2 tbsp vegetable oil

Method:
1) In a wok , dry-fry the chillies over low heat until they are darken and become fragrant. Shake the pan and stir frequently as they roast. Be careful not to burn them. Put the chillies aside to cool.
2) In the same pan, dry-fry over medium heat the shallots and garlic, turning them until they are softened and blistered. Set aside to cool.
3) Remove stems from the chillies and shake out most of the seeds , then cut into small pieces.
4) Peel and slice the garlic and shallots, set aside.
5) Wrap the 2 tbsp shrimp paste in a double piece of aluminium foil and put it in the frying pan and cook for about 5 minutes, turning over once or twice.
6) To save time , i put the dried shrimp, chillies, garlic, shallots, shrimp paste, sugar , fish sauce and tamarind juice in the blender and blend it into a smooth paste.
7) Warm the oil over medium heat and add the paste and stir occasionally until the paste slowly darkens to a deep brownish colour and becomes very fragrant. When cool , the paste can be stored in a tightly sealed container in the fridge.

Note:
This recipe has been adopted from a Thai cookbook with a list twist in it.

Don't be fooled by the long list of steps. Its definitely worth the trouble just to have a taste of the authentic thai tom yum again. The ready-made chilli paste out there tasted rather generic therefore instead of getting a bottle of it and to cut down the preparation time, i chose to make my own just to find out how it will taste like with the soup.

That's just the chilli paste needed for the soup and here's a list of what you should have in your bowl/pot of yummilicious appetizing soup!

SOUP

* 750ml (3 cups) chicken broth

* 20 medium sized prawns

* 2 stalks lemongrass (bruised)

* 8 kaffir lime leaves (sliced)

* 60g galangal, large slices

* 6 bird's-eye chillies

* 4 tbsp fish sauce

* 4 tbsp lime juice

* 150g oyster mushrooms

* 1 tbsp roasted chilli paste

* 2 sprigs coriander (roots included)

Method:

1) Bring the chicken broth to boil, and add in the bruised lemongrass, bird's-eye chillies, galangal lime leaves and the cleaned roots of coriander. Let it boil.

2) Add in fish sauce and mushrooms.

3) Add lime juice and the roasted chilli paste and lower the heat and cook for about 3 minutes or so then add the prawns.

4) Check seasoning, adding more fish sauce or lime juice for a hot and piquant soup.
5) Add chopped coriander leaves when you serve.

Note:
You can choose to add the lime juice and fish sauce just before you serve instead of adding it into the soup. while it boils.

You can choose to shell and devein the prawns or you can just put the prawns with its shell into the soup. I shelled and deveined the prawns for ease of consumption.

Nasi Lemak ( Rice in Coconut Milk )

Nasi Lemak literally means rice in cream, adopted from the cooking process whereby rice is soaked in coconut milk/cream and then the mixture is steamed. This is my first time tryin my hands on cooking this particular dish. When i was growing up, whenever we have Nasi Lemak served at home , I'd get excited cause i can put as much gravy as i want on my rice unlike the store bought ones, dry without much gravy.

Usually Nasi Lemak would be served with spicy anchovies and since i don't have any at home, i substituted it with spicy prawns (sambal udang). You may also serve this dish with fried fish (sardine, mackerel, etc), peanuts and just bout anything that you desire. I don't quite fancy peanuts, therefore i excluded it.

Ingredients

RICE

* 3 cups rice

* 4 cups of water

* 1/2 cups of coconut milk

* 3 screwpine leaves (knotted)

* 3 shallots (thinly sliced)

* 1/2 inch ginger (thinly sliced)

* A pinch of salt

Method :

1) Wash and rinse the long grain rice for at least 5 times to get rid of the starch and also any particles in the rice.

2) Add in the rest of the ingredients in the rice cooker and let it cook.

3) After 10 minutes or so, stir the rice so that the remaining ingredients will be well blended with your rice.

4) Once the rice cooker's "keep warm" indicator is on , fluff up the rice with your fork and cover it up with the lit and let it sit approximately 15mins before serving.

SPICY PRAWNS

* 800g-1kg prawns (shelled and deveined)

* Tamarind juice to taste

* Salt and sugar to taste

* Olive oil

Spice Paste

* 3 medium red onions

* 3cm ginger

* 5 cloves garlic

* 2 tsp shrimp paste powder

* 5 candle nuts

* 5 tbsp chilli paste

Method:

1) You can either blend or pound all the ingredients for the spice paste.

2) Fry your prawns with a little bit of oil for less than a minute and dish out.

3) Heat up your work and add olive oil and stir fry the spice paste until fragrant.

4) Season with salt and sugar to taste and finally add in your tamarind juice until it reaches the consistency you desire.

5) Taste again and season accordingly if you need to.

6) Add in the prawns and simmer for less than 5 minutes otherwise the prawns will turn hard and rubbery.

Note:

If you like the gravy to be more spicy, adjust the amount of chilli paste you included in your spice paste.

Asam Pedas Bawal Hitam ( Hot/Spicy and Sour Black Pomfret )

Asam Pedas is a well known dish both in Malacca and Johore.

Different culture has got a different interpretation of this particular dish. As for the one i've prepared over here, i'm not too sure bout its origin because i was told that there's the Malay-style and the Nyonya style of Asam Pedas. But one thing i know and very sure of is that i'm loving this dish!

This dish alone , got my bro goin for 3 servings of rice and for my mom, 2 servings! So i'd take this as a compliment from my bro since he's pretty fusy with fish. He loves his fish to be fried. Typical of him.

INGREDIENTS

* 800gm black pomfret

* 12 okras

* 2 tomatoes ( cut into wedges )

* 1 tbsp fish curry powder

* 5 springs daun kesum (Vietnamese coriander )

* 1 bunga kantan ( torch ginger)

* Oil

* Salt and sugar to taste

* 2 medium shallots (pound)

* 4-5 cups tamarind juice

Spice Paste (pound)

* 2 cloves garlic

* 2 stalks lemon grass (white part only)

* 15 shallots (small)

* 20 dried chillies (soaked )

* 2 tsp shrimp paste powder

* 4cm fresh ginger

* 3cm fresh turmeric

Method:

1) Stir fry the pounded shallots until fragrant and add in the spice paste and stir further until aromatic.

2) Pour in the tamarind juice and let it simmer.

3) Add in daun kesum and simmer a while and add in bunga kantan and okras.

4) Put in the pieces of fish and let it simmer further. Add in the tomato wedges.

5) Season with salt and sugar to taste.

Note:

You can replace the dried chillies with chilli paste to speed up the cooking process.

Its best to use fresh ginger and turmeric instead of the powdered form.

Halved or quartered the bunga kantan. If you like, you can slice it finely.

Add in more tamarind juice for those who wants more gravy to this dish. To make the tamarind juice : 1 1/4 cups water with tamarind pulp the size of small ping pong ball. To make this dish more savoury, always add in tamarind juice, be it thick or thin but never add in water.

Usually stingray will be used to prepare this dish but since my granny dont take stingray , therefore i've replaced it with a black pomfret. You can basically replace it with any type of fish you fancy.

In order to have a less oily asam pedas, be sure to cut down the oil use to fry the pounded shallots and spice paste. Start off with a lil and add more oil if you need to. I used a deep non stick to cook this dish therefore i only needed very little oil.

If you do not like your okras and tomatoes to be to cooked, add the okra at the same time you add your fish pieces and let it simmer and add in the tomato wedges. I added the okra first so that it will be soft enough for my granny.

Spicy Broad Noodles

As usual i went to shop for grocery and i ended up at the noodles section. So i was just checking out the types of noodles available and this particular Non-fried broad noodles caught my attention. At first i thought of cookin some home made Wantan noodles with the broad noodles but without a good Char Siew in hand, it wouldn't be a complete plate of meal.

Since that was the case, i decided to stir fry it instead.

INGREDIENTS

* broad noodles
* minced garlic
* sliced onions
* prawns
* chilli paste
* shredded carrots
* chopped romaine lettuce
* pounded dried shrimps
* sesame oil & oil
* dark soy sauce
* sweet soy sauce
* oyster sauce
* salt and pepper to taste
* sugar

Method:
1) Cook the broad noodles until they are half cooked, remove and place it in a bowl of filtered water.
2) Marinate the prawns (deveined and shelled, leavin tail intact) with salt, pepper and onion powder. Heat a non-stick with a lil oil n sesame oil and fry the prawns until they turned pink and set aside.
3) Break eggs into a bowl and add a few dashes of fish sauce and pepper. Heat the non-stick pan and scramble the egg. Set aside.
4) Heat oil and sesame oil together and saute the minced garlic until fragrant and add in the pounded dried shrimps.
5) Next add in the chilli paste and stir fry further. Add onions and the shredded carrot.
6) Drain the noodles and add it in. Season with dark soy sauce, sweet soy sauce and oyster sauce.
7) Add in the prawns and eggs and stir fry further. Season with salt, sugar and pepper to taste.
8) Before serving, add in the chopped romaine lettuce and give it a last stir.

Note:
The chilli paste i used is a ready made chilli paste with tamarind juice and salt added into it. You can stir fry the chilli paste with a lil belachan stock granules /shrimp paste before hand and store it for later use in stir fry dishes or serve as a condiment with some freshly squeezed lime/calamansi juice.

You can cook the eggs and prawns together with the noodles. I chose to cook it separately to get a good results cuz i was stir fryin the noodles for 4 persons so its kinda a lot of noodles in a wok.

Sambal Prawns

Its been a while since i last had this dish. I was craving for something spicy and sourish ,so i decided to cook this particular dish. So off to the market i went . i bought some medium-sized fresh prawns along with other stuff from the wet market.

This dish is good to go with Nasi Lemak, especially when the gravy is thicker and spicier. Yummy.. just by describing it makes me wanna have some of that spicy prawns with Nasi Lemak!

INGREDIENTS
* garlic
* shallots
* sugar
* salt
* chili paste
* sliced onions
* tamarind juice
* pepper
* chicken broth
* shrimp paste (Belacan)
* prawns ( deveined and shelled, leavin tail intact)

Method:
1) Season the prawns with sugar, salt and pepper, leave it aside for an hour or so.
2) Heat oil in wok and stir fry till prawns turn pink, set aside for later use.
3) Pound/blend shallots and garlic and stir-fry it until fragrant.
4) Add in the chilli paste and stir further.
5) Add in some sugar and stir until it dissolved and add in the shrimp paste and let it simmer for a while before adding the tamarind juice.
6) Stir until it has perfectly combined before adding in the sliced onions to the wok/non-stick and stir until onions has soften.
7) Add chicken broth and let it simmer. Season with salt and sugar.
8) When the gravy is almost done, stir in the prawns and let it simmer for a short while before serving.

Roasted shrimp paste is recommended for this dish. The roasted version of shrimp paste is more flavorful than the non-roasted ones. You can also replace this with shrimp paste powder if the roasted piece of paste isn't available.

For those who love a more sourish note to this dish, feel free to adjust the amount of tamarind juice used. You can also omit the sliced onions if you're not a big onion fan. But the sliced onions in this dish sure give it the perfect kick. The whole combination's like a match- made in heaven!

Spicy Honey Chicken

I remembered when i was in high school, we had this Kemahiran Hidup (Living Skills) lesson; it had 5 units to it - Cooking, Gardening, Sewing, Woodwork and Electronics. During the cooking week, the students were required to look for a recipe to try out during class on that particular week.

Some actually thought it was a bane to look for a recipe and to get the raw ingriendents to school and place it in the fridge in the morning when we reach school. As for me i find it really fun but i was more concern bout the cleanliness of the utensils available in the school. So usually before the cooking session starts, we were required to choose the utensils from the " utensils store room". After we got what we wanted, i'd wash the utensils squeaky clean before using it for god knows what was running around when it was stored in the store room or if the previous person who used it even cleaned it properly, didnt wanna risk gettin stomache at the end of the day.

We were expected to work in a pair so i was working with this punjabi girl. I couldnt remember exactly the exact ingredients we used but i knew that we split the ingredients on who to bring what and so on. So for that cooking week, we prepared 2 dishes. One was some masala cauliflower and the other honey chicken or so some masala spicy honey chicken or something.

On one particular morning, mom was lazy to think of what to cook so she got me to cook up a dish of chicken for her. And i was thinking, what else can i do with chicken, definitely not the usual curry or fried stuff, so i thought of the stuff i used to cook when i was in high school. I remembered that masala spicy honey chicken thingy me and my cooking partner used to cook, and i pretty much like how it tasted like but i forgot the ingredients used and since i dont have masala at home, so i did my version of the chicken and i called it the spicy honey chicken.

The pieces of chicken were marinated with a lil salt, egg yolk, sesame oil & a lil cornflour. I left the marination in the fridge for an hour or so and deep-fried it first before preparing the gravy/sauce. For the gravy i used grinded dried chillies + shallots+ garlic+ brown sugar+ salt and top it up with honey before i dish it out.

I personally hate the smell of dried chillies, so instead of having it seeded and pound or grind it, i bought the ready made available in a packet. I've tried both, the home made n the ready made avail, they both have a different effect on the food, perhaps the other ingredients also contributed to the taste of it but since i discovered that the ready made ones didnt' have that dried chillies smell, i've been using it since. Also stir-frying the chilli paste longer till the oil breaks also help in gettin rid of that greenish chillish smell to it.