It’s been an interesting week for me. I’m now lacking a whole bunch of wisdom, 4 of them in fact. After having 4 wisdom teeth surgically removed a week ago. Food hasn’t really been a priority for me of late. But with thanks to my Mum and my boyfriend I managed to moosh my way through more batch of cold soup than I care to remember.

When it came to this theme the last thing I wanted to make was vegetable based soups, as I’m trying to get into more solid foods. Slowly! Very slowly! So I’ve gone with a Hot and Sour Fish soup.

Hot-and-Sour Fish Soup, as seen in Stir, by Christine Manfield

serves 4

2 tsp. vegetable oil

1 small onion, chopped

8 tsp. Laksa paste

5 cups (1.5 litres) fish stock or water

1/4 cup (200ml) Tamarind Liquid

4 tsp.  (20ml) fish sauce

8 bok choy leaves, shredded

2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped

1/4 cup Chinese long beans cut into 2 inch (5cm) lengths (regular green beans will sub)

2 ears of corn, kernels cut

12 straw mushrooms, cut in half lengthwise

extra vegetable oil, for deep frying

2 cups of cooked rice

1/4 cup cilantro leaves

1. Heat oil in a saucepan and fry onion and Laksa paste for a few minutes, or until fragrant. Add stock, tamarind liquid and fish sauce and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Add vegetables cook for 20 minutes, or until vegetables are very soft. Taste and if necessary, adjust seasoning.
3. Heat oil in a deep fryer or saucepan and fry fish filets for 6-8 minutes, or until very crisp. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels.
4. Divide cooked rice between 4 bowls and label hot soup over. Top with friend fish and cilantro leave.

Laksa Paste

makes 2 1/2 cups (600ml)

1 tsp. (5g) dried Thai chilies

4 tbsp. (60g) Malaysian shrimp paste (belacan)

4 tsp. (20g) dried shrimp

1 tbsp. (15g) ground turmeric

2 tsp. (10g) coriander seeds, roasted and ground.

4 oz.  (125g) fresh  lemongrass stalks, finely sliced.

3 oz. (90g) fresh galangal or ginger, chopped

2 1/2 oz. (75g) fresh turmeric, chopped (if fresh turmeric is not available increase the turmeric measure by 1 tsp.)

1 1/2 oz. (50g) Thai chilies

5 oz. (150g) shallots, finely sliced

5 oz. (150g) garlic cloves

3 1/2 oz. (100g) macadamia nuts

2 cups (500ml) olive oil

1. Dry-roast dried chilies and shrimp paste separately over low heat until fragrant.
2. Soak dried shrimp in warm water for 10 minutes, then drain.
3. Blend all ingredients to a fine paste in a food processor or blender, adding a little water if necessary.
4. Heat a wok and gently fry paste over moderate heat, stirring frequently, for 10-15 minutes or until oil takes on a red colour and the mixture is fragrant and thick.
5. Spoon into sterilised jars and seal when cool. Keeps, refrigerated, for 1 month

I ended up changing a number of things along the way. I think my entire mindset when making this soup was a Tom Yum soup – only that wasn’t really what I was making so the first few taste tests were pretty worrying!  Two hours in I was very quickly getting over the entire thing. The whole kitchen reeked! Unfortunately our place doesn’t have an extractor fan. With some assistance to check what it was missing (this was about 3 hours in!) – lots more salt was added, more chilli and more tamarind. Finally it had some flavour – which is hard to believe the ingredient list above!

A couple of other small changes, for the fish element – I went for flake and prawns, I went with baby corn instead of corn kernels.

All up there was a lot of prep in getting this soup together. I really enjoyed making the laksa paste as the flavours smelt amazing. Finally when the mix of flavours were balanced it all came together – but we ate it at about 9.30 and frankly at the end of it all I just wanted to go to bed. But Tim seemed to appreciate it after patiently waiting for something to eat.