Thai Hot and Sour Soup

I've never failed to get compliments from anyone who's tried this soup.  I went to a Thai restaurant for supper one night and I ordered a small bowl of soup and an entree.  Of course the soup was huge and I ended up taking the entree home in a doggy bag.  I praised the soup pretty highly to the waitress and the cook came out and took me back to the kitchen.  He held up a can pointed and said in broken Engrish, "You buy at asian market.  Figure out rest of soup on own"

Well I met the challenge and I've played with the recipe on my own a bit mostly to accommodate my wife's allergy to seafood.

First the paste:

Tom Yum Soup Paste

Ingredients

2-3 thumb sized pieces of galangal
2-3 tablespoons of cilantro roots
2-4 tbsp of fish sauce
2 tbsp Golden Mountain Sauce
1/4 cup of fresh squeezed lime juice
zest of one lime
1 tbsp of salt
2 tbsp of palm sugar
four pieces of lemon grass 
1-2 tbsp of oil
2-4 tbsp of chili powder.
chili pepper (optional)
2-4 Kaffir Lime Leaves (optional)

Equipment

Blender
Fry Pan
measuring spoons
measuring cup
ice cube trays
silicone spatula
meat tenderizer

Dice the galangal, cut out any soft bits and discard.  Dice the cilantro roots.  Smash the lemon grass with the meat tenderizer, combine all the ingredients in a blender saving only the chili powder and the oil.  IN the frying pan heat the oil and chili powder until the oil turns red.  Allow to cool and add to blender, puree to a paste.  If the paste seems too thin then add more galangal.  Scrap the paste out into ice cube trays and freeze overnight.  Remove the frozen cubes from the trays and either vacuum pack them or place them in a freezer bag and return them to the freezer.  Should last about 4-6 weeks in the freezer.  You can omit the salt in the recipe and then add to taste to the soup when you make it.  The recipe is fairly loose in that the proportions can change quite a bit and you'll still have a tasty soup. I generally omit the Kaffir lime leaves as I find they taste like dish soap.  If you have a similar reaction then avoid green curry as the leaves feature prominently in green curry paste as well.

Hot and Sour Soup

Ingredients

1 package Udon Noodles
2-4 cubes of Tom Yum Paste (see preceding recipe)
1 bag bean sprouts
5 tomatoes
2 cans of pineapple chuncks
3 chicken breasts or 5 chicken thighs diced
1 bunch of green onions sliced thinly.
1 piece of lemon grass 
oil for frying

Equipment

stock pot or dutch oven
wooden Spoon
tongs
soup Ladle
meat tenderizer

This soup is just about as basic as it gets.  Smash the lemon grass with the meat tenderizer. In the dutch oven or stock pot fry the chicken in oil until cooked.  Add two to four cubes of Tom Yum paste and the lemon grass to the chicken and cook until fragrant.   Add the two cans of pineapple and one can of water if you need to stretch out the broth.  Cook the Udon noodles as per the packages instructions and reserve.  Slice the tomatoes in wedges and add to the soup with the bean sprouts about 5 minutes before serving. Add a few Udon noodles to each serving bowl (if you prefer the bean sprouts crisp then add them to the serving bowl rather than the soup).  Add soup and place a tablespoon or so of sliced green onions to the centre of each bowl and serve.

This soup is more like a clear thin stew than soup.  Nonetheless it is a  favorite at my house and at my parent's house.  I also use the paste to make curried pork with fresh roasted cashews.