TOM YUM GOONG (Spicy sour Shrimp Soup)

Tom Yum soup or Spicy sour shrimp soup,  is a soups originating from Laos and Thailand. The Royal Lao version includes a pinch of rice in the soup, whereas other typical Laotian and Thai versions do not include rice as an ingredient. Tom yum is widely served in neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, and has been popularized around the world.

Tom yum is characterized by its distinct hot and sour flavors, with fragrant herbs generously used. The basic broth is made of stock and fresh ingredients such as lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, limejuice, fish sauce and crushed chili peppers.

Tom yum is usually made with prawns (tom yum goong or tom yum kung), chicken (tom yum kai), fish (tom yum pa in Laotian and tom yum pla in Thai), or mixed seafood (tom yum thale or tom yum po taek) and mushrooms - usually straw mushrooms or oyster mushrooms. The soup is often topped with generous sprinkling of fresh chopped cilantro (coriander leaves).

The less popular, and relatively more modern, variety of tom yum is tom yum nam khon (Thai: ต้มยำน้ำข้น), where coconut milk is added to the broth. This adaptation is not to be confused with tom kha - where the galanga flavor dominates the soup. Tom yum nam khon is almost always made with prawns, whereas chicken is often used in tom kha (called tom kha gai, "chicken galanga soup"). Its other cousin is less well-known outside Thailand - tom khlong. Sometimes Thai chili jam (nam phrik phao, Thai: น้ำพริกเผา) is added: this gives the soup a bright orange colour and makes the chili flavor more pronounced.

Commercial tom yum paste is made by crushing all the herb ingredients and stir-frying in oil. Seasoning and other preservative ingredients are then added. The paste is bottled or packaged, and sold around the world. Tom yum flavored with the paste may have different characteristics from that made with fresh herb ingredients.

Source: Wikipedia

It's sunny but very cold Sunday morning,2nd January 2011, about 5 degrees outside. This New Year celebrations I still passed it in Turkey, very much miss the celebration among families in Indonesia ...hopefully, the celebration next year I could be in Indonesia.

And this one, is only my little cure in this chill early 2011 day...

Ingredients needed:

- 1 kg of shrimp. Clean and separate shrimps' head and tail for making broth.
- 1/2 Kg fresh button mushrooms. Cut into pieces
- 1 + 1/2 lt of water for broth
- 2 stalks lemongrass. Crushed.
- 3 kaffir leaves.
- Galangal. Crushed.
- lemon juice to taste
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce

- 1 tablespoon soy sauce

- Coriander leaves for sprinkle/ garnish
- Enough cooking oil for sauteing.
Make puree from these Spices:
- 1 red onions (if you have small one, use it 3 or 4 pcs)
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon shrimp paste
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 large red chilly,seeded. (to give red color of soup)
- some cayenne pepper (if you like more hot spicy, you can add the amount)
- 3 kaffir leaves
- salt and sugar to taste
You can use blender or food processor

Method:
 1) Make shrimp broth: Boil water with head and tail of shrimp. Strain and discard the head and tail of shrimp.
2) Stir-fry the ground ingredients until fragrant, stir in soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce,lemon grass, galangal and kaffir leaves. Saute until all wilted. Pour these spices into boiling broth.
3) Continue boil the broth over medium heat. Add shrimp, and mushrooms. Add lemon juice, do not forget to test the taste, maybe you must add salt or sugar or even lemon juice to adjust the taste. It should have spicy sour taste. Continue cook until boiling and mushrooms slightly wilted.

Enjoy while hot with steam white rice. @(^_^)@