Classic Thai - a first recipe

"I would definitely classify this as one of the world's greatest soups. I have enjoyed it for some twenty years and have never had quite the same version twice." Madhur Jaffrey

Not just Madhur Jaffrey - Back in 2011 CNN ranked it 8th in a list of the world's best foods. In the same year it was registered as National Cultural Heritage by the Thai government. Plus UNESCO, in 2024

"inscribed [it] on the Representative List of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity." (Wikipedia)

So this is not just any old soup. It's Tom yum kang (or goong). Obviously I don't make it in this house because of the double whammy of prawns and chilli, but I have certainly tasted it - in Thailand I think and probably also in a Thai restaurant somewhere. Well they all have it on their menu. And yes it's delicious - and spicy.

And I'm writing about it today because it's the first recipe in my last Madhur Jaffrey book on my shelves - Step-by-step Cookery. In many ways this last book of hers is the most approachable and the most modern looking, and yet, when I was looking for a picture of it there were none, which implies it's completely out of print, and also not available second-hand. Maybe that last note means that people don't get rid of this one. They hang on to it. It isn't quite step-by-step in that there are no pictures of the process of each recipe - just a very few, but the recipes are set out clearly, and some of the common techniques are shown step-by-step at the beginning of the book - shelling and deveining prawns for example.

It's obviously not a pure Indian cook book either as she covers all of the major Asian cuisines, including India - well the major exception is China, although Hong Kong is there, and Cambodia and Myanmar don't get a look-in either, but this was written back in 2000 when those last two may have been difficult to travel to. It's a beautiful book that I rarely use and I should. Writing these first recipe posts makes me realise how many good books I have in my collection and how little I use them. I'm not even sure I used it much when I first bought it.

In her introduction Madhur Jaffrey had these words to say about ingredients:

"You should not be put off by the 'foreignness' of some of the ingredients. Just remember that at one time, potatoes, tomatoes and corn were 'foreign'. ... Ingredients, indeed whole dishes, once travelled the world at the cumbersome pace of the mortals who transported them - on foot, by boat or on horseback. Today a chef can eat a dish in Hong Kong on one day, and recreate it in his kitchen in New York the following week. A recipe for a curry from Malaysia can be 'e-mailed' to London and the ingredients for it found in many supermarkets the same day."

One recipe writer I found said that the most difficult thing about it was finding the ingredients - and again this may have been written some time ago, because they are all readily available these days. Indeed you can even buy Tom yum paste in a jar - well Tom yum soup as well - in your local supermarket.

So a few words about the soup, described by Charmaine Solomon as "the best known Thai soup, and one which really wakes up the tastebuds." It has probably been around for a very long time, but a recipe was not written down until 1898, although that version is not the same as the one widely used today - with variations of course - and emanating from the royal household - in 1964. People tended not to write down these things - the ancient traditional dishes - until the world really became interested in writing it all down in a big way - from the 19th century on.

There are, of course hundreds of recipes online, but I am focussing on just two. Neither Madhur's or Charmaine Solomon's versions are online, alas. Felicity Cloake has a go at the perfect version but I think the two I am going to present are probably the best - for me anyway.

I'll begin with the less authentic - in that she is not Thai - Nagi Maehashi on the Recipe Tin Eats website, where she explains that there are in fact, two different versions - one with a clear broth and the other creamier with either evaporated milk or coconut milk.

And in her usual way there are lots of pictures of the process and the ingredients and lots of tips, plus the reassuring words:

"The making part is very straight forward, calling for not much more than plonking and simmering, straining, more plonking then simmering again. EASY!"

The second is from a Thai lady who runs the website Hot Thai Kitchen. You can find her recipe for Tom yum soup (Tom yum goong) on the website - or check out her video on YouTube which has had 3.3 million views - which surely is some kind of endorsement. She has been making this soup since childhood, and so you would think knows all there is to know - and like Nagi it's all set out beautifully. Those ingredients that many consider too difficult to find?:

"the iconic flavours come from 3 herbs: lemongrass, galangal, and makrut (kaffir) lime leaves." Hot Thai Kitchen

All of which are available in your local supermarket - well the lime leaves are not always there, but your Asian supermarket will have them. Pailin "Pai" Chongchitnant - the writer of the Hot Thai Kitchen website finishes her post with these words:

"Your tom yum soup is only as good as the liquid you use as the base. For tom yum goong, I like to make a shrimp stock using the shrimp shells and heads for maximum shrimp flavour. Shells only is fine, but shrimp heads contain tomalley, which is that delicious orange fatty substance that I call "shrimp foie gras" and that adds a lot of richness and umami to the dish."

If shell-on shrimp are not available, you can use good chicken stock, though homemade is even better. Fish stock is also fine if you want to stick to the seafood theme. Water is...okay...(sense my hesitation here?), but there is no flavour or body to water, so the soup will not taste as good."

She also emphasises the popularity of the dish by telling us that - of course, the flavours have spread into other dishes:

"There are tons of different versions, and the tom yum flavour is so good it has been turned into other dishes like tom yum spaghetti, tom yum fried rice - and even tom yum pizza which was introduced by Pizza Hut in Thailand! You can also make a delicious tom yum stir fry or what we call "dry tom yum." Hot Thai Kitchen

Unlike my Madhur Jaffrey first recipe book I have used Charmaine Solomon's Thai Cookbook - her version of the soup shown here - a fair bit. I was blown away by Thai food when I first tasted it in a hotel in Bangkok on a stopoff on the way back from one of David's pseudo conferences - a sales reward back in the day. A subsequent few days in Phuket on another stop off on the way back from Europe, confirmed this, although it also confirmed that it was also very spicy. Even I who likes spicy food was quite pleased to get back to bland Australian food - for a while. Then I began searching for a decent Thai restaurant - We are blessed with several here in Melbourne. I also bought Charmaine Solomon's book - and now that I think of it, a Women's Weekly book too - also invaluable.

Madhur Jaffrey summed it all up in her introductory paragraph or two on Thai food:

"Thai food virtually bursts with contrasting hot, sweet, sour and salty flavours. The Thai people have taken some of the best ideas from the cooking of the Malays, Chinese and Indians, thrown in their own zesty spirit - and their love of the raw, crunchy, aromatic and colourful - and come up with a cuisine that is unmatched in its combination of lightness and seductive earthiness." Madhur Jaffrey

So true.

YEARS GONE BY

April 3

2024 - Are the supermarkets really the good guys?

2023 - Cooking for your man - which features Charmaine Solomon, which is a bit of a coincidence

2022 - Nothing

2021 - Nothing

2020 - Deleted

2019 - Nothing is as good as buying food

2018 - Nothing

2017 - A word from Jane Grigson