Tom Yum Paste

Tom yum paste is an important ingredient of tom yum soup, the Thai wonder. But the paste is itself so delicious that it can be used as a marinade or even as a sauce. If you use the paste to marinate fish, pork or chicken, before baking, frying or grilling them, it makes wonders to their taste. There are many ready-made pastes available in the market which claim to make delicious tom yum soup. However, if you make it fresh at home, it is much tastier and safer. And you will find no difficulty in making it. You can simply make the paste of the ingredients using your food processor and fry that paste a little and your paste will be ready.

You can make almost ¾ cups of paste from 4 tablespoons of finely chopped lemongrass, 1 ½ inch piece of ginger sliced, 5 flakes of garlic, 1 fresh red chilli sliced, a bunch of fresh coriander with separately chopped leaves and stems, 2 shallots, 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, ½ teaspoon of shrimp paste, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 2 teaspoons of palm sugar or brown sugar, ¼ cup fresh lime juice, a pinch of salt  and 2-3 spring onions sliced. Only if you want your tom yum paste to be diluted, add half tablespoon of coconut milk. In place of fresh red chilli, you can use ½ to 1 teaspoon of dried crushed chilli or alternately cayenne pepper too. Coriander stems and leaves are to be separately chopped as stems can be used to make the paste and leaves will be used to garnish the soup. Both fresh as well as frozen lemongrass can be used and is available at Asian food stores, so also are the fish sauce and shrimp paste.

Make a fine paste of all these ingredients by putting them into a food processor. Fry this paste for 4-5 minutes in a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Keep on stirring. When a nice aroma is given out, turn the fire off. The duration of the preparation is just 10 to 12 minutes. To prepare soup from this paste, take a pot of deliciously prepared chicken stock, boil it and add a few spoons of this paste. Go on adding a little amount of paste, every time checking the taste, till the soup gives the flavor of your choice. It is advisable to add more fish sauce if you feel like adding more salt. Add shrimp, vegetables you want and tofu and then, to make the soup creamier, add coconut milk to the soup.

You can marinate 6 to 8 pieces of chicken or fish with this paste. Shrimp, any other shellfish and even pork turns yummier with this paste. In fact, in case of fish or seafood, there is no need to waste time in marinating, you have to just spread the paste and cook the fish, that’s it.

Tom yum paste can be eaten even as a sauce. And it can also be made into another yummy dish just by adding ¾ tablespoon of coconut milk and warming it a little to keep its saucy flavor as it is. Your entrée will become tasty, when you will add this thinned curry-like paste to it.