Main Ingredients:

See below ingredients and instructions of the recipe

Cooking Preparation of the Recipe:

Stephen Ceideburg 1 lg Ripe tomato, cored, seeded
2 oz Lump tamarind, or 2 -and cut into wedges
-tablespoons tamarind 2 tb Sugar
-concentrate 1/4 Fresh ripe pineapple, cored,
1/2 c Boiling water -cut into 1/4-inch slices
8 oz Raw shrimp, shelled and -and then cut crosswise into
-deveined -small chunks
2 Garlic cloves, chopped 1/2 c Fresh or canned bamboo
1/4 c Plus 1 ts nuoc mam -shoots, drained and thinly
-(Vietnamese fish sauce) -sliced
Freshly ground pepper 1 ts Salt
2 tb Vegetable oil 2 Fresh red chili peppers,
2 Shallots, thinly sliced -minced
3 Stalks fresh lemon grass, 1/2 c Fresh bean sprouts
-white bulb crushed and cut 1 Scallion, thinly sliced
-into 2-Inch sections 2 tb Shredded mint

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.

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