Tom Yum Soup

After our epic hot pot yesterday, we had an astonishing amount of food left over. This included half a bag of squid tentacles and a whole mountain of shrimp, fish balls, fish roe-filled fish tubes, shrimp balls, egg dumplings, fish dumplings, tofu, daikon...the list goes on. Anyway, I had accidentally left out a chicken breast because I thought initially that we would have a chicken-based broth. So in the end, I had to find a way to get rid of all this meat before it all went bad.

So I made tom yum soup...except that I dumped everything I could get away with into it. It was quite epic.

Tom Yum Soup

-3 cups water

-8-10 prawns with heads still on (or more)

-3 slices ginger

-handful of kaffir lime leaves, bruised

-2 tbsp nam prik pao

-fish sauce to taste (~2 tsp)

-2 stalks lemongrass, inner white parts only and chopped into manageable pieces

-5 shiitake mushrooms, dehydrated

-Any other type of mushroom (enoki, oyster, button, etc.)

-1 chicken breast, diced

-Squid tentacles

-Any other type of addition - fishballs, egg dumplings, shrimp balls, etc.

1. Remove shrimp heads and boil in water. Simmer for about 10 minutes before removing the heads. Now you have shrimp stock!

2. Add lemongrass, shiitake mushrooms, kaffir leaves, and nam prik pao, and bring to a boil.

3. Add meat, other mushrooms, and fish sauce.

4. Just before serving, add the lime juice. Don't add it any earlier, or the soup will turn bitter.

5. Dish out and serve!