Tom Yum Goong ( Hot and Sour Thai Soup ) - Jenny

Ingredient

Prawn

Lemongrass - sliced

Lemon leaves - sliced

Galangal – sliced

Chili – sliced

Fish sauce

Lemon juice

coriander

Green onions – sliced

Chili oil

1.Working with the prawns:

The prawns are the main ingredient in the tom yum goong recipe so we will first start working with the prawns. First, wash the prawns and take off the heads. Now, peel the prawns and remove the shells, the tails are retained and not taken off the prawns. Do not throw away the prawn heads and shells as, we will be using them in this tom yam soup recipe. Next, keep the prawns aside, we will soon use these prawns to make our tom yum goong soup. You will also have the prawn heads and shells, we will be using these in the next step.

2.Preparing the stock for the tom yam soup:

 Put the 1 tablespoon of oil in a large pan and heat it. Now add the heads of the prawns and the prawn shells (that we kept aside earlier) into the pan. Set the heat to a medium level and cook for around 10 minutes. Toss and stir the contents of the pan during the 10 minutes that you cook them. The heads and shells will soon turn deep orange in color and that is a sure sign that they are sufficiently cooked. Now add pork or chicken stock into the pan and also include lemongrass and lemon leaves, boil the contents for around 5 minutes. The contents of the pan would have reduced to a slightly lower level (shrunk). Since we intend to use this as the main stock for our tom yum goong recipe, simmer for around 20 minutes. You will then have to separate the prawn heads and prawn shells from the pan and retain the liquid. At this stage, you can throw away the heads and shells of the prawns and put the liquid stock back into the pan.

3.Adding the other ingredients:

We will first add some of the ingredients that we reserved earlier. Add the green onions sliced, galangal sliced, lemon juice, fish sauce, chili oil. Notice that we have not yet added the main ingredient in our tom yum goong recipe, which is the prawns. Boil the contents in the pan for around 2 to 3 minutes and it is now time to add the prawns into the pan. Put the prawns into the pan and cook for 5 to 6 minutes. The prawns will turn to a pink color once cooked, so you will need to keep observing the cooking process. At this stage turn off the heat under the pan and move to the next step, your tom yam koong will soon be ready to serve.

Your hot and spicy tom yam kung soup tastes best when served immediately, sprinkle the coriander leaves on top before serving.