Coconut-mango soup with lemongrass-prawn skewer and black lentil dumplings

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 can coconut milk (400 g)
• 500 ml chicken stock and vegetable stock, mixed
• Lentils, yellow, 1 ladle full
• Lentils, black, 1 ladle full
• 20 prawns (king prawns)
• 5 stalk(s) lemongrass
• ½ mango(s)
• 5 kaffir lime leaves
• 10 cm ginger
• 1 tbsp cardamom
• 1 tbsp coriander
• Pepper (Szechwan pepper)
• 1 tsp curry paste, yellow, depending on the desired spiciness
• Oil (peanut oil)
• possibly palm sugar
• Spring onion(s) OR
• Basil – Böätter (Thai)
• Sauce (Sweet chicken sauce)

Instructions

Working time approx. 45 minutes; Rest time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour 45 minutes

nice as a course in an Asian menu

Wash and devein the shrimp, then skewer 5 each on 4 lemongrass stalks. Trim the lemongrass if necessary and sharpen and taper it slightly with a knife. Place the skewers on aluminum foil, marinate in the sweet chicken sauce, close the aluminum foil, and let it marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Wash the yellow lentils and bring to a boil in water. When soft, drain in a sieve. Bring the black lentils to a boil in water with 1 stalk of pounded lemongrass, ginger, and 1 kaffir lime leaf. Bring to a boil over low heat until a creamy consistency forms. Season the black lentils with ginger and Sichuan peppercorns, if desired. Grind the cardamom, coriander, and Sichuan peppercorns in a mortar and pestle, then gently roast in peanut oil in a pan. Do not let it brown! Add the curry paste, roast, deglaze with a little coconut milk, and mix to a thick paste. Add the remaining coconut milk. Add the stock mix and the kaffir leaves and bring everything to a boil. Grate in the ginger to taste. Add 2-3 tablespoons of the yellow lentils to the soup. Peel the mango, cut one half into small cubes, and add it to the soup. Add 2 tablespoons of the sweet chicken sauce to the soup. Remove the kaffir leaves. Puree the soup with a hand blender. Season with ginger and Sichuan pepper to taste and for desired spiciness. Add palm sugar, if desired. Add the kaffir leaves again and let the soup simmer over low heat. Fry the shrimp skewers in a pan with a little peanut oil, remove the leaves from the soup, ladle the soup into bowls, place a black lentil dumpling in the center, and serve with the shrimp skewer. Garnish with Thai basil leaves or spring onion curls. We serve this with a sweet Riesling. I’ve made this soup many times, and it always turns out a little different. The quantities of the individual ingredients are quite variable; I’ve even cooked it with bean sprouts, without shrimp as a party soup, or without coriander, or without cardamom, or whatever… But I usually cook it “us de lameng” anyway. The yellow lentils make the soup beautifully creamy and intensify the yellow color. The black lentils are more for the visual aspect, but guests are always impressed by the black lentils, which contrast beautifully with the soup and have a flavor I haven’t experienced so often. The ginger, Sichuan peppercorns, curry paste, and sweet chicken sauce, in particular, always have to be adjusted to the individual’s individual preference for spiciness.