Tom yam kung

A clear hot-sour prawn soup built on a stock made from the prawn heads and shells.

Shellfish. Not vegetarian — contains fish sauce, shellfish.

Ingredients

600 g large prawns, shell on
1.2 litres water
3 lemongrass stalks, bruised and cut in lengths
40 g galangal, in coins
8 kaffir lime leaves, torn
200 g oyster mushrooms, torn
4 tablespoons fish sauce
4 tablespoons lime juice
8 bird's eye chillies, bruised
2 tomatoes, in wedges
1 tablespoon palm sugar
1 bunch coriander

Method

THE STOCK IS MADE FROM THE HEADS AND SHELLS, and that is the difference between a soup that tastes of prawns and one that merely has prawns in it. Peel them, keep the heads and shells, and fry those in a dry pan 2 minutes until they go orange and smell sweet, pressing the heads to release what is inside them.
Water on the shells, simmer 20 minutes, then strain and throw the shells away. Do not boil it hard -- a hard boil makes prawn stock bitter and cloudy.
Lemongrass, galangal and lime leaves into the strained stock. Simmer 10 minutes. BRUISED, NOT CHOPPED: they are aromatics to be lifted out, not eaten, and chopping them puts splinters of lemongrass in every spoonful.
Mushrooms and tomatoes in, 3 minutes.
Prawns in, 2 to 3 minutes, until the flesh is opaque and has just curled. They keep cooking in the bowl.
TAKE IT OFF THE HEAT BEFORE THE LIME GOES IN. Boiled, lime juice turns flat and faintly bitter, and the sharpness that the whole dish is built on disappears.
Fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar and the bruised chillies in, off the heat. Stir once.
TASTE AND ADJUST IN THAT ORDER -- sour, salty, hot, then a little sweet to hold them together. It should make you wince slightly and then want another spoonful.
Coriander over the top. Serve at once, with rice.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Thailand · All recipes