Spicy & Sour Soup with Shrimp & Tom Yum Paste (Tom Yum Goong)

Serves

Photo, Michael Graydon and Nikole Herriot.

Toronto chef Nuit Regular changed the way the city’s diners viewed Thai cuisine—and she hopes her new cookbook, Kiin, will do the same for how people cook it at home. "One of the first pastes I learned to make was for tom yum soup. Its spicy and sour notes perfectly complement the soft shrimp." - Chef Nuit Regular

Ingredients

2 cups water
2 stalks lemongrass , lightly bruised and cut into 2-in. pieces
5 thin slices galangal
9 unpeeled Thai garlic cloves , or 2 peeled regular garlic cloves, lightly bruised
3/4 tsp medium shallots , cut in half and lightly bruised
5 fresh magrud lime leaves
1/3 cup Tom Yum Paste
10 fresh or thawed frozen medium shrimp , peeled, deveined, and cut in half lengthwise
6 ounces oyster mushrooms , roots cut off, torn in half lengthwise
5 chopped cherry tomatoes , cut in half crosswise
1 tbsp tamarind paste , homemade or store-bought
1 tbsp Thai cane sugar
2 tbsp Thai fish sauce
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro , leaves and stems
2 tbsp green onions , cut into 2-in. pieces
1 stalk fresh sawtooth coriander , cut into 1-in. pieces
1 - 3 fresh bird's eye chilies

Instructions

In a medium pot over high, bring water to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and add lemongrass, galangal, garlic, shallots and lime leaves. Boil for 5 min. Stir in Tom Yum Paste and boil for another 5 min.
Without stirring, add shrimp, oyster mushrooms and tomatoes. Increase heat to high and cook for 2 to 3 min or until shrimp are pink and opaque. Make sure to wait until shrimp have had a chance to cook before stirring. 3. Stir in Tamarind Paste and cane sugar, and cook for another min. Stir in fish sauce and lime juice. Remove from heat. Stir in cilantro, green onions, sawtooth coriander and chilies. Ladle into bowls and serve.

The recipes in Chef Nuit Regular’s cookbook, Kiin, encompass her cooking life in restaurant kitchens and beyond. They’re also some of her restaurants’ biggest hits. From the pad Thai noodles she used to make and sell in little plastic baggies for extra income as a student, the birthday curry her mother made every year and even this sour and spicy soup with shrimp, these recipes are something special. (And you’re going to want to try them all).

Excerpted from Kiin by Nuit Regular. Copyright © 2020 by Nuit Regular. Photography copyright © 2020 by Michael Graydon and Nikole Herriott. Published by Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.