Tee Pees Style Tom Yum

To put a name to a dish is the most difficult thing to do…. by which I mean deciding on what to make on any given day is so difficult. One , everyone should kinda like it, two , the fridge must be kinda stocked and three and most important , I must also be kinda inclined to  make the effort .

So there I was on a Monday evening  pondering over the dinner menu .  The weather had cooled down after the recent monsoon like downpour and Soup seemed a very natural choice, a spicy one . Rummaging through the fridge saw many interesting possibilities as ingredients, none of them enough for a stand alone dish but  enough to throw into a pot. Heres what I manage to gather.

·        Handful of Shitake Musnrooms

·        2 big Oyster mushrooms

·        A head of broccoli that looked like it has seen better days

·        2 Stalks of celery

·        1 carrot

·        Handful of baby corn

·        Box of  Nile Perch (Lulu) which I cut up into medium cubes

·        2 of those bluff Soya peppered fish balls.(I cut them up into smaller pieces)

·        Small bunch of Pak Choy

·        Garlic bunch without peeling the cloves.

·        Slightly dried small stalk of Lemon grass

·        Bonus discovery was a box of boiled over cooked noodles in the freezer..  

With no chicken bones to get a stock going, I cheated and threw in a couple of  Organic Kallo Veg Cubes(Low sodium and gluten free)

When the water started to boil I dropped the Pak Choy Stalks, Broccoli, Celery, Carrot , the Bluff Fish Balls and half of the mushrooms.  Once they were well cooked I added the fish ,  baby corn, Bashed up lemon grass and the remaining mushrooms.  

The broth was coming along very well except that there wasn’t  any ummph.  That bit of fragrance was just not there.

I had two options, either put  sambal (had ¼  bottle left over from the last Singapore trip) or  packet of Tom Yum Paste. I opted for the Tom Yum as I felt the Lemon grass deserved a Thai paste.

Once the paste had mixed well with the broth, I let it simmer for a bit and soon the fragrant thai spices filled the kitchen and nudged those hunger pangs.  The rest was easy ...

Quickly chopped up some red chilli , Coriander leaves and Lemon mint  into smaller bowls for garnishing depending on taste and tabled the whole thing..

Turned out to be one of those fantastic soups with the right amount of spices, veggies and fishiness.. The Coriander and Lemon Mint added that bit asian zing  as well. I had blundered into a perfect Tee Pee Style  Tom Yum . 

Yum ! Just right for the last few wintery nights in Dubai .  

April 2014