INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

This soup has become a staple on my table.  It's relatively quick to
make and absolutely delicious. I've made it with chicken as well as
shrimp and have some red snapper in the freezer to try out the next
time. Squid's a natural for this dish.  It's from Southern Vietnam.
You can make it as sour or spicy as you want by juggling the amounts
of the ingredients that give those qualities.  It makes a complete
meal as is and is excellent with salad rolls or cha gio (fried
"spring" rolls).  Soak the lump tamarind in the boiling water for 15
minutes, or until  the tamarind is soft.  Force the tamarind through a
fine sieve into a  small bowl.  If tamarind concentrate is used, dilute
it with only 1/4  cup of warm water. Cut each shrimp lengthwise in
half. In a bowl,  combine the shrimp, garlic, 1 teaspoon of the fish
sauce and pepper  to taste. Let stand for 30 minutes. Heat the oil in a
3-quart  saucepan. Add the shallots and lemon grass and saute briefly,
without  browning. Add the tomato and sugar and cook over moderate heat
until  slightly soft. Add the pineapple and bamboo shoots and cook,
stirring, for about 2 minutes. Add 5 cups of water and bring to a  boil
over high heat. Stir in the tamarind liquid, salt and the  remaining
1/4 cup fish sauce. Reduce the heat to moderate and simmer  the broth
for 5 minutes. Stir in the shrimp, chiles and bean sprouts  and cook
for 30 seconds more. Add the scallion and mint. Remove from  the heat.
Remove and discard the lemon grass. Ladle the soup into a  heated
tureen and serve at once. Note: Do not overcook the shrimp or  they
will toughen. Catfish, red snapper or any other firm  white-fleshed
fish can replace the shrimp. From "The Foods of  Vietnam" by Nicole
Rauthier. Stewart, Tabori & Chang. 1989.  NOTE:  I've been pushing
Vietnamese cuisine long enough here that the  ingredients shouldn't be
too unfamiliar to regulars. Some of this  stuff will probably have to
come from an Asian market, but you can  make some substitutions.
Tamarind is made from the interior pulp of a  tree seed pod and is
quite sour. It has a subtly sweet taste too.  I've never done it, but I
imagine that you could substitute lemon  juice for the tamarind and
still retain the essential character of  the soup. Lemon grass can be
replaced by grated lemon zest with a bit  of juice--it's the lemon
taste rather than the sourness that's wanted  here. Dried lemon grass
is available and is virtually as good as the  fresh stuff. It's
inexpensive and keeps well on the shelf.  (I grow  my own lemon
grass--it's a really easy and pest free plant to grow.  If you manage
to find some fresh lemon grass, whack off the bottom  couple of inches
and stick it in a flower pot full of good potting  soil.  Don't water
the cutting too heavily until it starts to grow.  Chances are that it
will take off and then you can transplant it into  the ground--it likes
rich, well drained soil and full sun.) There's NO  substitute for fish
sauce.  The soup would probably be good without  it, but it wouldn't be
the same. Since there's not that much  difference between canned and
fresh pineapple (at least here on the  mainland) I use canned stuff,
drained and chopped. If you're ever in  a market and see fresh Thai
pineapple, grab some. The stuff I had in  Thailand made our Hawaiian
pineapples pale in comparison.  From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster
collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini

A Message from our Provider:

“Times change, God doesn’t.”

Nutrition (calculated from recipe ingredients)
----------------------------------------------
Calories: 638
Calories From Fat: 87
Total Fat: 9.8g
Cholesterol: 57.4mg
Sodium: 1194.5mg
Potassium: 1368.1mg
Carbohydrates: 119.1g
Fiber: 7.9g
Sugar: 34.9g
Protein: 23.2g