On a hot day this sour soup with salmon head and shrimp brings the appetite back. It is good when the broth is cleanly sour, the salmon head rich and the shrimp sweet. The difficulty is that the fish turns fishy easily and the vegetables go limp with long cooking.
A quick blanch of the salmon head and shrimp in water with 1 tablespoon white rice wine or vinegar clears any off smell. Frying the pineapple and tomato with sate chili oil before the water goes in gives the pot its color.
This batch weighs about 4.1kg, at roughly 52 calories per 100g.
Method
Clean 500g salmon head and 200g shrimp, rinse 2 to 3 times in cold water, rub gently with salt, then blanch briefly in a pot of water with 1 tablespoon white rice wine or vinegar and lift out to drain.
Cut 3 tomatoes into wedges. Cut 200g bac ha and 300g okra on the diagonal into pieces about two finger joints long. Peel 1 pineapple and cut into bite sized pieces.
Put 50g ripe tamarind in a bowl with 150 to 200ml hot water, mash it and strain for the juice.
Marinate the shrimp and fish with 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon seasoning powder and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and leave 15 to 20 minutes.
Set a pot with 1 tablespoon cooking oil and fry 3 minced garlic cloves until fragrant. Add the pineapple and fry for 3 to 5 minutes, then add the tomato and 1 tablespoon sate chili oil and stir until the tomato softens and the color comes up.
Pour in 1.5 liters water with the tamarind juice and bring to a boil.
Season with 1/2 teaspoon seasoning powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 2 tablespoons kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, and stir. Cover and wait for it to return to a boil, then add the bac ha, okra, shrimp and marinated fish.
Cook another 5 to 7 minutes until everything is just done, turn off the heat and scatter 50g sawtooth herb and rice paddy herb on top.
Tips
Blanching the salmon head and shrimp in water with white rice wine or vinegar clears any off smell before cooking.
Frying the pineapple and tomato with sate chili oil before the water goes in gives the pot its color and depth.
Skim off the foam and the fat as soon as the pot boils, since anything left makes the soup greasy and fishy.
Add the bac ha (taro stem) and okra last and cook 5 to 7 minutes before turning off the heat, so they keep their crunch.
Fifteen to twenty minutes of marinating is what carries the seasoning into the shrimp and fish.
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The recipe above is sweetened with kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, measured 1:1 like sugar. See the product page or send us a message.