Hot and Sour Prawn Soup

So, obviously we’ve been in the Thai spirit these past few days. We made the chicken satay, and the next night made hot and sour soup with prawns (shrimp). It’s actually one of the few recipes I’ve made that actually turned out exactly as it should! Usually, I manage to screw something up so it’s not quite what it should be, but at least edible. This actually tasted like hot and sour soup! I’m so impressed with myself right now… :).

This is yet another example of how simple Thai cooking is. There were only a few ingredients we couldn’t find, but we substituted them with other items. Here is the recipe:

Hot and Sour Prawn Soup

Prawn Stock

• 1 bag of shrimp-I think a little less than a pound. The actual recipe says 200 grams of shrimp.
• 2 cups of water
• 2 cups of chicken stock
• Tails from the shrimp

Rest of Ingredients

• 2 cloves of garlic-finely chopped
• 2 shallots- we used half a red onion-finely chopped
• 1 tbsp ginger, skin removed, thick slices. The actual recipe calls for galangal or Thai ginger, but we couldn’t find it so we used regular ginger.
• 1 lime cut into 3 wedges
• 2 kaffir lime leaves- we also couldn’t find these but luckily Cliff bought a bag of dried foods including these leaves while in Thailand so we used those.
• 50 grams straw mushrooms- couldn’t find these either so we used white button mushrooms. I’m sure any type you like would work! I just eye balled the amount.
• 2 small green chili’s-finely chopped
• 2 tbsp coriander
• 2 stalks of lemongrass-sliced into 1 inch long sections. You want to slice the lemongrass until you hit the purple part. Save those ends for tea!
• 1 tomato-we didn’t use a tomato because Cliff doesn’t like them (I know, he’s crazy). If you use them, you want to cut into 8 pieces.
• 2 tbsp fish sauce

* We multiplied this recipe by 2

First up, the stock! I brought the water and chicken stock to a boil. Then added the shrimp tails and let the mix boil for about ten minutes.

After about ten minutes, I spooned the tails out and added the remaining ingredients except for the lime juice and coriander.

I let all the ingredients boil for about 2 minutes (or until shrimp were cooked), then added the coriander. I took the mix off the heat, then stirred in the lime juice. That’s it! Soup is served!

This was really tasty! I was worried at first it would be bland but it actually had a serious kick of flavor. We both really enjoyed it!

After dinner, I made some tea with the leftover lemongrass stubs. I just pounded out the stubs a little bit to release the flavors, brought water to a boil, and added the lemongrass. I let it steep for about ten minutes.

I love the flavor of lemongrass! It has a nice citrus flavor, very refreshing! This tea is super easy, a great end to a long day. You could also add some ginger and honey, those flavors would work well too.

Great dinner!