How to Make Tom Yum Goong Like a Thai-Norwegian

  

 Til Eva.

I want to show you how I make Tom Yum Goong, a sour and spicy Thai soup with prawns.

Naturally, there's several variations - most importantly, you make it by taste: how you like it.

And I like it with insane amounts of fresh lime juice and chili.

My favorite Asian market in Oslo

 

Oh, by the way: a small update on our chili- and tomato project:

 It's growing!

Some of the core essentials when making Tom Yum soup:

Lemon grass
Galangal (looks like ginger, but it's not the same!)
Kaffir lime leaves

Please notice! You can't actually chew and swallow the lemon grass, galangal or kaffir lime leaves: they're just adding flavor! Leave them in your soup bowl!
 
Chili paste with soya bean oil (see photo below)
Fish sauce

Without these key ingredients, don't even bother.

(Easily available in any well-stocked Asian market, though!)

I like adding rice noodles, 

making it a 'noodle' soup

 

For garnish: chopped cilantro and bean sprouts!

It's common to add some kind of mushroom; like sliced champignon.

I like to use enoki mushrooms, mostly because I think they look funny and I like the texture.

 

Besides, they always remind me of:

 

Hattifnatter!!

 

 (Thanks, Google. I owe ya)

I get a bag of big frozen ready-peeled shrimps.

I take the frozen shrimps and lay them out on paper towels, and then I peel of the layer of ice when they've started melting. Put them in a bowl and set aside!

Most importantly, 

you need to get the most endangered ones, 

preferably contributing to sponsoring

slave labor. 

Get a large cooking pan

- for this I bring out my

'fårikål' pan! 

(Serves around 6 people - anyway, you need to adjust to what feels right for you! )

Ingredients:

20 large prawns

2 liters of chicken broth
10 kaffir lime leaves (ripped in half by hand, don't cut with a knife)
3 stalks of lemon grass (bash it lightly with the handle of your cutting knife, then cut into large chunks. If you bash it too hard, the lemon grass will fall apart, and it'll be pretty annoying when you eat)
A decent chunk of Galangal (sliced)

The following you need to adjust after your own liking, but this is to get you started:

4 big table spoons of chili paste with soya bean oil
4 table spoons of fish sauce

Mushroom
Tomatoes (diced)
Fresh red chili (chopped)
Fresh lime juice (I used five large limes)

Cilantro
Bean sprouts

Rice noodles

1. Add the lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves and galangal into the boiling chicken broth. Let it boil for a few minutes.

2. Add the chili paste and fish sauce. Taste for fun.

3. Add mushroom and tomatoes. Boil for a couple of minutes.

4. Add fresh chili and fresh lime juice.

Taste, taste, taste along the way!

Needs more salt? Add fish sauce! More zest? Add lime juice! Not spicy enough? Add chili! 

 Vidar doing a man's job:

squeezing the lime

When you think the soup is tasting how you want it to, bring it to a boil, add the prawns and turn off the heat! The prawns should be cooked pretty immediately.

 

 I soak the rice noodles in lukewarm water 

for them to start to get soft

- when the soup is ready I boil an

additional pan of water, turn off the heat

and then put the noodles in and

let it soak under a lid for 3-5 minutes

until they are soft, but firm

Put some noodles into the bowl and add soup!

Garnish with chopped cilantro and bean sprouts!