Thai · serves 2
Tom Yum
Hot, sour, aromatic. Twenty-five minutes and it clears your head.
Ingredients
- 300g mushrooms, halved
- 200g prawns or tofu
- 4 cups stock or water
- 2 stalks lemongrass, bruised (or 2 tbsp lemon zest)
- 6 kaffir lime leaves or 1 tbsp lime zest
- 1 inch galangal or ginger, sliced
- 4 green chillies, crushed
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp soy or fish sauce
- 1 tbsp chilli paste
- Coriander
Method
- Simmer the stock with lemongrass, lime leaves, galangal and crushed chillies for 10 minutes. Don't eat these, they're for flavour.
- Mushrooms, 5 minutes.
- Prawns or tofu, 3 minutes.
- Take it OFF the heat, then add lemon juice, soy and chilli paste. Boiling lemon juice makes it bitter.
- Taste and push it — it should be aggressively sour and salty, not gentle.
- Coriander. Rice on the side.