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.

Khai Yat Sai - Omelette

It is also spelled as Kai Yat Sai, its a square stuffed eggs; a type of Thai Omelette. This simple egg dish is one of my best friend's fav!

You can basically stuff your eggs with any type of filling you want. Be as creative as you want. You can even decorate your omelette with strips of tomato sauce if you like.

Ingredients:

Filling
* finely chopped onions
* finely chopped garlic
* chopped tomatoes
* prawns ( shelled and deveined)
* mince meat ( i used lean pork)
* finely chopped carrot ( i substituted with long beans)
* freshly ground black pepper
* sugar to taste
* tomato sauce
* dark soy sauce ( a drop or two)
* chopped coriander

Method :
1) Season the mince meat with sugar, black pepper and fish sauce
2) Season the prawns with pepper and fish sauce
3) Saute the garlic and onions
4) Add in the the minced meat , long beans and prawns
5) Next, add in the chopped fresh tomatoes and stir
6) Add water/chicken broth, let it simmer before adding tomato sauce and dark soy sauce
7) Lastly , add in the chopped coriander. Sugar to taste
8) Set aside

Omelette
* eggs
* fish sauce

Method:
1) Break the eggs in a bowl, add a few dashes of fish sauce and whisk it
2) Glaze the non-stick pan with butter or oil
3) Pour just enough of egg into the pan to form a thin sheet
4) Once the mixture has cooked, spoon the filling and place it in the center of the egg and fold the sides so that it looks like a square
5) Switch off the gas
6) Use an average size of plate to cover the squared omelette and turn your non-stick pan up side down.
7) There you have it, your Khai Yat Sai is ready to be served.

For those that dont quite fancy the distinctive taste of ketchup, you can add in a lil chilli sauce or some chopped bird eye's chilli or dried chilli to give it the "heat". Freshly ground black pepper would be just as good. I gotta admit i'm not so much of a ketchup fan but when it comes to this dish, i simply love it!

Thai Affair

I personally love thai food but the person who sparked my interest to try my hands on thai cuisine is my dad. He's a big fan of thai cuisine so i learnt up a few dishes but now im gonna blog bout a whole different range of what i used to prepare for my dad.

The 3-flavoured seabass was inspired by my bestie's mom. In general i love this as well! i've tasted the authentic thai version as well as the Malay version of this dish but i never got around tryin it out at home until my bestie's mom asked if i know how to prepare this dish. If i've the recipe to it, it'll definitely gimme a better idea on the combination of ingredients but what surprised me was my bestie's mom  actually kept a newpaper cutting with this particular recipe on! which is so cool cuz not only can i learn but also fine tune a lil on the taste as well. I actually tried it out at home before preparing it for my bestie's family and the outcome i got made my day. From then on, i just love preparin this dish. Its so easy and so yummy at the same time. Of course for those who love a more spicy note to this dish , cili padi's ( bird's eye chili pepper) the answer to it.

Mango kerabu is also another of my favourite thai dish. This one is solely on experimental basis. I've no idea on what they (thai restaurants) use as their dressing. So i did some readin and research on thai cuisine and majority of the dishes have nampla (fish sauce) as one of the ingredients in the list besides lime, cilantro and bird's eye chili. That gave me an idea on how i should do my dressing. For the dressing, i used nampla, brown sugar and lime juice. The amount of both the nampla and lime juice are the key to fine tune the taste of the dressing. Sugar would act like a neutraliser when the taste gets too overwhelming. For this dish, i stir-fried (on the non-stick pan) the pounded dried shrimps and a lil shredded cuttle-fish to be sprinkled on the dish when its done  together with some bird's eye chili pepper and sliced fresh shallots.

The dish would be superb if the mango its on the sour note and do avoid from gettin the powderish texture of mangoes, that will so destroy the whole combination. And when u're done arranging the shredded mangoes on the plate and sprinkled it wth the stir-fried pounded dried shrimps & cuttle fish, bird's eye chili and fresh shallots then you can pour the dressing over it n voila! Of course its good to mix it up before u actually eat it to get a more balanced combination of all the ingredients.

I call this dish the Thai Spicy Minced Pork. For those who ran outta ideas on what else they can do with minced pork, they can try this out. This dish isnt as spicy as the others. It might be on a mild note for those who are not a big fan of spicy food. I myself, at times i wonder if my taste buds are all dead! Sometimes my taste buds get too extreme with me. The ingredients you need for this dish are  :-

1) onion, garlic, red fresh chillies, tomato, shrimp paste (place it in the food processor & process until roughly chopped.

2) sesame oil to stir-fry the blended ingredients

3) minced lean pork and seasoning [fish sauce, lime juice & sugar ( i used brown sugar)]

4) add coriander and fresh shallots before serving