Tom Yam Soup with Salmon

Oh of course I feel lazy to write this down – it was simply because I don’t use any measurement to cook this one. This dish is not really a simple one if you make it from scratch, and usually I make things right from zero – but never with Tom Yam. I guess I just trust the Thai Tom Yam Paste enough to serve this one delicious thing in my life.

So if you ever had Tom Yam before, just trust your tongue and feeling, because really my posting here might be not helpful at all.

Ingredients:

For the soup base:

Tom Yam Paste – use anything you find, I found that the more Thai language on the jar, the more original the taste. I used the one in the glass jar, not the one in the sachet. Basically the paste contains of all the spices needed to make the soup base, but of course to make it tastier, you have to add some things. I used about 5 tablespoons of this paste – just add and add until you got the taste right.

1 medium size onion, slice

4 cloves garlic, smash

1 lemon grass, slice (and I still added many many sprinkles of lemon grass powder – it’s cheaper than buying the fresh one and I found the taste is still satisfactory)

Few cm galangal (again I used the powder one)

About two or three teaspoon of tamarind paste

Two or three tablespoon of lime juice

4 kafir lime leaves, shredded

Many sprinkles of dried coriander leaves

100 ml coconut milk

1 chili padi (poor husband, he loves it hot but my chronic gastric won’t allow me to have it so hot)

In the soup:

About 600 gram of salmon (I used two big salmon steak, slice to medium chunks)

200 gram brown mushrooms cut 4 each

About 7 fish balls, cut 2 each

Note: You SHOULD use prawns and squid (oh dear, I’m dying only to imagine them!). They are wonderful, sweet, and very very delicious. But I have written myself some records of being brought hospital in my sake of loving seafood, so I’m just helping myself to be realistic here by substituting them with anything that doesn't kill me.

How to:

Prepare the soup base first.

Stir-fry the garlic and onion, put in the tom yam paste and everything else, cover with water (about 1 liter or more, to your need), add the coconut milk, bring to boil, and taste, taste, taste.

Throw in the salmon, mushrooms and fish balls, boil until they’re cook. And taste, taste, and taste. Add anything you think necessary to make your tom yam tastes right.

See? I’m not really helpful here (as I wasn’t in many of my recipe :D) anyway you’ll always have Google and all the best for your Tom Yam Soup!