VIETNAMESE SWEET AND SOUR SOUP
Most Asian countries have their own version of a sweet and sour soup, this is the Vietnamese version called Canh Cua. It is usually a seafood soup and is indigenous to the Mekong Delta in southern Viet Nam. The sour taste comes from the tamarind and the sweet from the palm sugar and the fresh pineapple. (1)
This week’s recipe is missing the seafood, but feel free to add any you fancy or include chicken if you prefer…….Enjoy!
Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 shallots, finely sliced
2 lemon-grass stalks, bruised with a rolling-pin
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbsp tamarind purée
2 tbsp palm sugar
750ml chicken stock
2 celery stalks, sliced
100g (3½oz) button mushrooms, quartered
2 tomatoes, cored and chopped into eight pieces
200g (7oz) peeled and cored fresh pineapple, cubed
100g (3½oz) bean sprouts
1 red chili sliced thinly on the bias (optional)
100g (3½oz) baby corn, thickly sliced
2 green onions thinly sliced on the bias
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
small handful of coriander, roughly chopped
small handful of Thai basil or standard basil
Method
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the shallots, lemon-grass, garlic, tamarind pulp or purée and sugar. Cook over a low-ish heat for five minutes until slightly softened but not coloured. Add the stock and simmer for five minutes. Throw in the celery, mushrooms, tomatoes and pineapple, and simmer for a few more minutes. Next add the bean sprouts, corn , green onions and chilies and simmer for five minutes more. Stir in the soy and fish sauce and taste the soup – you might want to add more tamarind, soy or sugar to balance the sweet and the sour. Lastly, stir in the herbs and serve in small warmed bowls.
(1) wikipedia
Original recipe and photo courtesy of Alice Hart. Published in the Telegraph July 10, 2011
