Fiery shrimp soup Tom Yam Gung

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 40 mm-sized shrimp(s), fresh with shell (length with head: approx. 10 cm)
• 100 g mushrooms, white-capped
• 250 g shrimp carcass(s)
• 400 g water
• 8 tbsp soy sauce (Saus Tim Ikan)
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce (saus tiram)
• 10 g shrimp paste (terasi udang)
• 2 tbsp glutamate, high purity
• 8 m.-large tomato(s), fully ripe
• 4 medium-sized garlic cloves, fresh
• 2 small green chili peppers (cabe rawit hijau)
• 20 g galangal, fresh or frozen
• 30 g ginger, fresh or frozen
• 4 kaffir lime leaves, fresh or frozen
• 1 lemon(s), juice
• 4 stalks of lemongrass, fresh
• 1 tbsp tapioca flour
• 2 tbsp rice wine
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 4 tbsp broth, from the cooked (see above)
• n. B. fish sauce to taste
• 4 small red chili peppers (cabe rawit merah)
• e.g. coriander leaves, fresh
• n. B. flowers and leaves

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes

A special kind of shrimp soup

Rinse the fresh shrimp with cold water. Remove the head and the chitinous shell. Leave the last segment, including the tail, attached to the body. Do not discard the shrimp heads and the chitinous shell, including the legs (carcasses). Boil the carcasses with 250g of water, covered, for 15 minutes. Strain and discard the solids. (If using liquid fish stock from a jar, you can skip boiling the carcasses and adding MSG.) Dilute the stock with 400g of water and stir in the fish and oyster sauce, the shrimp paste, and the MSG. Clean the mushrooms, but do not wash them; cut them into pieces and set them aside. Wash and quarter the tomatoes. Trim the ends of the garlic and squeeze the juices. Wash the green chilies, remove the stems, deseed them, and halve them. Wash, peel, and thinly slice the galangal and ginger root. Wash the kaffir lime leaves and use them whole. Squeeze the juice from the lemon and discard the peel. Cut off the tough stem of the lemongrass, remove the brown leaves, and wash the stalks. Cut 40 grams of the white part of the lemongrass into thin slices, and cut two stalks crosswise into approximately 5 cm long pieces. Simmer all the broth ingredients for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, wash the red chili, leaving it whole and using it with the stem for garnishing. Prepare the soup bowls and garnish. Strain the broth and let it cool. From the mixture remaining in the sieve, fish out the lemongrass stalks, leaves, ginger, and galangal slices and add them to the strained broth. Squeeze out a little of the remaining solids and discard them. Season the broth with fish sauce, add the mushrooms, and heat through, but do not boil. Combine the ingredients for the base and stir into the broth. Heat the broth until simmering, so that the tapioca flour thickens. Add the shrimp just before serving. As soon as they turn pink, immediately ladle the soup into bowls, garnish, and serve. Serve with fresh baguette. Enjoy! Note: This soup originated in Thailand. Due to its balanced flavor and, despite its spiciness, has since conquered restaurants throughout Asia. In traditional Indonesian cuisine, soups as an appetizer are virtually unknown. There are perhaps 10 dishes that could be considered soups, but in the truest sense, they are noodle dishes, vegetable side dishes, or goulash-like soups (gulai) served with rice. The most well-known is bakso (pronounced baso), a glass noodle soup with rubbery dumplings, which is also offered warm by street vendors at lunchtime. Well, with temperatures usually over 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) outside, you really don’t need hot soup to warm you up.