Finished Product

Finished Product

I love the hot spicy soup “Tom Yum” which you get in Thailand. The best I ever had was in a local restaurant in Bangkok which was so hot a and tasty that you broke out in a swet with tears in your eyes. On one occasion again in Bangkok I lost my voice for 30 minutes after a chilie went down the wrong way. Right now we are in Kho Samui ans I took a cooking lesson from the chef at the hotel to make Tom Yom Gong (Prawn Tom Yum). So this is the recipe :

prepare before hand:

  1. Make half a liter of chicken or fish stock
  2. Can of condensed milk
  3. Lime juice or lemon juice
  4. Prepare cut mushrooms, tomatoes, spring onions and shallots
  5. Get the following Spices ready at hand:
  • Coriander - The root is sliced and added to the soup. The leaves as garnish.
  • 2 sticks of Lemon Grass (cut into 1 cm pieces )
  • A one inch or so piece of Galangal (slice thinly) - this is a root like ginger and is important.
  • 2 to 4 or more red chilies - cut the end off and then bash them with a knife (gets flavour out)
  • At least one tablespoon of Toasted Chillie paste in oil - you can buy this in a tin and is essential for good Tom Yum.
  • Fish Sauce - this is a sour salty Thai sauce in bottles (like Osyter Sauce)
  • 4 or so Kaffir lime leaves - tear them up by hand to throw in the soup.
Cooking
  1. In a Wok or large saucepan bring the stock up to boil. Take some of the sock in a ladel and blend into it 2 tablespoons of chillie paste before adding to slowly to the soup.
  2. Add the sliced galangal, torn kaffir leaves, corriander roots and chilles. (We also added some chicken powder to enhance stock).
  3. Let simmer for 10 minutes or so before adding the raw prawns
  4. Add the prawns, mushrooms and tomatoes and cook for a few minutes.
  5. Add lime juice, fish sauce, coriander leaves and a small amount of condensed milk
  6. Simmer for a bit and taste. add more fish sauce to make more salty.
To make more spicy you just up the chilie paste and the number of red chillies added to the soup. The soup I made in about 10 minutes was surprisingly good !
Prawn Tom Yum soup ready for serving

Prawn Tom Yum soup ready for serving