Excuse the pun but this dish is called Tom Yum soup, it is a Thai hot and sour soup it is usually served as a starter so my take on it is a little bit different as I wanted it to be filling enough for dinner. You can either make Tom Yum goong which is with prawns and Tom Yum Gai which is with chicken the choice is yours. I love me some seafood and I felt the flavour of the prawns would really compliment the soup.
You can either go with store bought Tom Yum paste or make it at home, I’m lazy so I went with the store bought paste, the brand I used is called Mae Ploy, any oriental Asian store should have Tom Yum paste as sometimes the ingredients to make the paste can be hard to find in the UK.
To begin, prep your vegetables I diced one shallot, I grated the zest of half a lime and cut the wedges into thirds so the flavour can be infused in the soup. Using two stalks of lemon grass removing the parts that you’re not going to use and smash them a bit with your knife to release the flavour. Of course I used garlic, about two big cloves I also used a thumb sized piece of ginger and minced it, you should use galangal when making Tom Yum soup but I couldn’t find any in my local oriental Asian stores so I substituted with ginger. You will also need some kaffir lime leaves preferably fresh, again I couldn’t find them any where so I had to settle for dried kaffir lime leaves, I put them in whole no need to break them up. This step is optional if you like your soup to have a bit of a kick you can add a chilli, I didn’t have a chilli so I used a scotch bonnet pepper and it made it super spicy.
For more veggies I added some button mushrooms because that’s all I had on hand but if you want your Tom Yum to be authentic then you can add some shiitake mushrooms. This next step is also optional but I like the taste and needed to incorporate more veg in this soup to get my five a day in, I used half a red bell pepper and chopped it. That’s all your veggies done for now and you can now move onto the prawns.
I used some large shelled prawns and the heads were still attached, don’t throw away the head, that’s going to go in the pot and make the fish stock! First things first we need to clean the prawns especially with big ones, I used lemon juice, water and vinegar. After you remove the heads put them in the pot with the veggies and add some water and bring to boil and cover the pot. While that’s cooking away and all the flavours are infusing, you can remove the veins from the prawns, this can be quite gross with bigger prawns and can take some time if you’re not used to it, maybe wear gloves to make it easier. After de-veining them I don’t remove the shell, I keep them on for flavour, I use a little bit of lemon juice, garlic powder, pepper and Tom yum paste to marinate the prawns and then set aside, I will add them later as prawns need little cooking time and I don’t want them to shrink.
After your broth has been brought to boil remove the lid and give a stir, you can remove the prawn heads now and add in the Tom yum paste, I added about 4 heaped teaspoons of the Tom yum paste, as as much as you want to your preference. You can add some more water if necessary and boil again.
I flash fried my prawns next to seal in the flavour on low heat prawns do not take long to cook at all, I then added my prawns into the soup. Whilst all the flavours are infusing you can chop op your garnish, some scallions, parsley, coriander and basil, it is up to you what herbs you use but I love my food to be bursting with flavour, the coriander leaves are a must, if you don’t like coriander you can add some parsley it brings some freshness to the soup. You should also remove the lime wedges, the kaffir lime leaves and the lemon grass, leaving the lime in for too long will give it a bitter taste and you certainly don’t want to bite into it and get a mouthful of sourness and bitterness.
Because I was having this soup for dinner as a main rather than a starter I added some noodles to it, the kind of noodles is completely up to you , I added some cooked udon noodles . I took the soup off the heat and added my garnish, and it was ready to eat. Below I have listed all the ingredients the good thing with this recipe is how fluid it is you can substitute the ingredients and you don’t have to follow the measurements you can add them to your taste. If you want to see how I made it head over to my Instagram @shefshahira or my TikTok where I have a video of the cooking process. Happy eating!
Ingredients
-5/6 large king prawns with heads and shells
-Tom Yum paste 3/4 tsp
-1 shallot
-2 cloves of garlic
-thumb sized piece of ginger
-1 chilli
-handful of coriander
-1 tsp fish sauce
-half a lime
-zest of half a lime
-2 stalks of lemon grass
-4/5 kaffir lime leaves
-handful of mushrooms- any will do
-half a red bell pepper
-shrimp heads for the stock
-salt and pepper to season
-a pack of noodles -optional, I used udon noodles
-handful of basil for garnish
-handful of parsley for garnish
-handful of scallions for garnish
-lime juice -optional if you like yours really sour
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