Sour fish soup (Gaeng Son Puu Ruam)
I need to come clean about this one…. On first taste I wasn’t a fan, it was just finished and way too ‘fishy’ for my tastes. We then put it aside for a 15 minutes to cool and then put it in the fridge overnight. It was reheated the next day, the sharp flavours had calmed down and it was great. In the UK it would have to go into the fridge covered straight off the stove. This would be a problem because it cools uncovered and vents some of the unpleasant flavours (I can only assume similar to wine and the sulfur dioxide etc) I think this is important. I would try putting it in the fridge uncovered to cool and then cover overnight.
| 300g | Sea bass (or enough to provide 1 Tab fish per serve) |
| 3 | Finger ginger, finely chopped long way |
| Paste | |
| 20g | Dried chillies, rehydrated by soaking in salt water and draining, finely chopped |
| 25g | Garlic, very finely sliced |
| 20g | Red onion, finely sliced |
| 1 | Lemongrass white, finely chopped |
| 1/2 Tsp | Salt |
| 1/2 Tsp | Shrimp Paste |
| Soup | |
| 1/2 | Young melon, cut into 1cm chunks |
| 4 | White radish chunks, 1cm each |
| 3 | Prawns |
| 1/4 Cup | Humming bird flower |
| 1 Cup | Cabbage leaves |
| 3 Cups | Chicken stock |
| 1 1/2 Cup | Tamarind juice |
| 1 Tab | Fish sauce |
| 1 1 /2 Tab | Palm sugar |
- In a pot boil chicken stock
- On a medium heat place fish and finger ginger in stock
- In a mortar (while fish is cooking, if you haven’t made this already for today’s recipes) pound salt and chillies until they are a paste
- Add lemongrass, garlic and red onion and pound to a paste
- Add shrimp paste to the mortar and mix in
- Remove paste from mortar (DO NOT CLEAN) and put to one side
- Remove fish from stock and place in mortar. Stir and mix until the fish is a paste in the mortar. Remove any bones in this process
- In the stock put the chilli/garlic and white radish. Stir and allow to cook for 2 minutes
- Add melon to the stock and cook for an additional 1 minute
- Put in tamarind sauce, humming bird flower and 1 tablespoon of fish mix (from mortar)
- Turn heat down to low and add sugar and fish sauce. Taste and adjust.
- Turn off heat (with soup uncovered) and place in a fridge for 15 minutes. Cover and leave overnight for best results.