Tom Yam Soup

Phnom-Phenh, Cambodia

So my siblings were home for Christmas and we thought it was the perfect occasion to learn how to make one of our winter favorites Tom Yam Soup. This recipe is based on Steamy Kitchen's recipe that you can view here.

This soup is a really quite an art to do and it's easy to give up at first. But we are confident you can make it work with a bit of a touch here and there. I think the nice and hard thing about Tom Yam Soup is the balance of flavors. See, in my opinion Tom Yam Soup has four basic and amazing flavors: spicy, acidic, fishy, and touch of sweetness.

So the trick is to find the balance of those four flavors and not let any of those flavors overpower and hide the others. So that's the hard part but also the magic of this soup.

So here it is: 

-2 litres of water.
-3 chicken stock cubes.
-4 stalks of lfresh lemongrass.
-10 slices of fresh ginger.
-4 cayenne peppers for mild spiciness (I would put 6 or 7 if you like spicy, or more if you like it burning hot)..
-Fish sauce (10 tablespoons)
-1 lime. 
-Some mushrooms in slices.
-Some chicken or shrimp. (it is amazing with shrimp)
-Some cherry tomatoes.
-Parsley.

1. Throw in the 2 liters of water the 3 chicken stock cubes, the 4 stalks of lemongrass cut up into thirds and a little smashed so that the juices flow easily, the 10 slices of ginger, the cayenne peppers and the peel of half a lime. 


2. Bring it to a boil and then lower the heat and let it simmer for about 20 minutes so that the flavors of the herbs are released into the water.

3. Now remove all of the herbs from the water so that you leave only the soup, and throw in the rest of the veggies. I did leave the lemongrass because I love the lemongrass flavor and touch.


4. Add the 10 spoonful of fish sauce now.

5. Add the veggies and chicken or shrimp for about 5 minutes, so that the vegetables are not too soft.

6.  Add the parsley or cilantro at the last minute together with the juice of the lime.



Ok, how does it taste?? 






See this is the moment where you "correct" any excesses and lack of flavors. Is it too acidic?? Add fish sauce, Is it to fishy?? add some acidic like lemongrass or the ginger back into the pot, and do not forget the cayenne peppers to make it extraordinarily amazing and to give you extra heat!

Now this soup is some serious work as you can see but the trick is to freeze the stock, that is the soup without veggies and then you can always have it ready when you are craving some good old soup when it's 0 degrees outside.




Enjoy! and give it a go.
A
I had this amazing Tom Yam Soup in Cambodia...amazing.