This is a spicy dish, and you may need to modify the spice to your taste else you find yourself coughing each time you slurp a sip of soup.
Ingredients:
16 oz. light chicken stock2 fresh kaffir lime leaves, chopped
2-in piece of lemon grass
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
3 Tbsp. Thai fish sauce
2 small hot green chilis, deseeded & finely chopped
1 tsp. sugar
8 small shiitake or straw mushrooms, halved
1 lb. raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
4 Tbsp. vegetable oil
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 large shallot, finely chopped
2 large hot dried red chilis, roughly chopped
1 Tbsp. dried shrimp (optional)
1 Tbsp. Thai fish sauce
2 tsp. sugar
1. Start by making the tom yam sauce. Heat the oil in a sauce pan, add garlic and cook until just brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve. Add the shallot to the oil, fry until crisp, remove with slotted spoon, and reserve. Add dried chilis, cook until dark, remove with slotted spoon, and reserve. Remove sauce pan from heat and reserve the oil.
2. Grind the dried shrimp, if using, in a food processor or spice grinder, add reserved chilis, garlic and shallots. Grind to a smooth paste. Return to sauce pan with original oil to a low heat. Warm thoroughly. Add fish sauce and sugar and mix. Remove sauce pan from heat. 3. Heat the stock and 2 Tbsp. of tom yam sauce together in a separate sauce pan. Add the lime leaves, lemongrass, lemon juice, fish sauce, chillis, and sugar, and simmer for 2 minutes.
Notes:
* I have made this soup many times, most of the time it is too hot for most people to enjoy when made as written above. I like the heat, but it will make you catch your breath. This time I attempted to mitigate some of that and it seemed a bit bland to me.
* On fish sauce, put frankly, it stinks and will make your house stink when you cook with it. That same flavor can easily take over the food, and I am not particularly fond of it. But, the food doesn't taste quite right without it, so I used one teaspoon of fish sauce and substituted soy sauce for the remaining portion of fish sauce. I probably would adapt that to use a little more fish sauce and a little less soy sauce next time, but not much.
* This particular batch had a lot of extra shrimp and mushrooms in it, so it was more like a stew than anything I've made or had previously. This, combined with my efforts to avoid making it too spicy and the extra broth required, might account for the fact that this batch mostly tasted like shrimp soup with a mild hint of Asian flavor.
* I have never found lemongrass that wasn't in a tube. I have no idea how much would equate to 1 inch of lemongrass, so I use a tablespoon for every inch.
* I used limes instead of lemons. I prefer their slightly milder flavor.
* I didn't use any kaffir lime leaves, dried shrimp or sugar, and never do. I don't know if I would know the difference.
* If the budget doesn't allow for shrimp, you can cut a chicken breast up into small, bite-sized pieces and use it instead.
Sandy's rating: 4 stars
It could've been spicier, and perhaps had a touch more fish sauce. My efforts to tame the spiciness of the dish resulted in it being a little bland. When reheating the batch in the freezer, I may need to toss in a handful of crushed red pepper for the desired level of heat. However, it was fresh, nice and satisfying in the way boiled shrimp can be. I also really enjoyed the mixed mushrooms we used.
Tony's rating: 3.5 stars
It's very good. You can really taste the fish stock. Could use a little more heat.
Cost:
Shrimp about $18.00 (we had a 1 1/2 pounds)
mushrooms $3
chicken broth - $2.50 (but we only used half)
lemongrass - $5
garlic is a staple
fish sauce and soy sauce are staples
dried red chilis are staples
green chilis in the freezer from last year's garden
limes 6/0.99
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