Thai Recipes: Tom Yum Goong One Of My Favorite Soup Recipes

Thai Recipes: Tom Yum Goong

 

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This week I am back to making another one of my soup recipes in my kitchen. This week I will be making one of my Thai recipes for soup. The weather here where I live is still dropping and we are not even into winter yet. All I know is that if my feet and toes are cold then it is time for one of my soup recipes. I love making soups in the cold weather. As stated in earlier blog posts it is because they are hearty, healthy and nutritious! Thai recipes comprise some of my favorite soup recipes. Thai recipes are amongst the most healthy and nutritious soups around and that is why I make them so often and as a side note they are very easy on the wallet to make and feed a family with as well and in these trying economical times I am sure many, many of us are watching food prices go up and so in turn we are keeping a watchful eye on our budgets.

Of all the soup recipes in Thailand Tom Yum Goong is the most popular of the Thai recipes for soup. It is also one of the most popular soup recipes in Thai restaurants in America as well. Tom Yum Goong is served all over Southeast Asia as one of those countries favorite soup recipes as well. The words "Tom Yum" are Thai words. The word "Tom" means boiling the soup and the word "yum" means spicy or hot and sour. The soup called "Tom Yum" refers to Thai recipes for hot and sour soup. Tom Yum goong is a hot and sour soup that has a fish stock base and other fragrant herbs and spices such as Kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, galangal, tamarind, chili peppers, Nam Prik Pad/Pao and lime juice. You can see why this is one of my favorite soup recipes. It is just loaded with flavor, aroma and lots of vitamin C in the form of the lime and chilies.


Many times I have had Tom Yum Goong that was made using Sambal sauce to add some of the heat and it works but what you really need to authenticate Thai soup recipes like Tom Yum Goong is a chili paste called Nam Prik Pad or Nam Prik Pao. This chili sauce compliments the nature of these Thai recipes. Nam Prik Pad chili paste is made with chilies, garlic, sugar, shallots and shrimp to add just that little extra seafood flavor boost to Thai recipes like Tom Yum Goong. I couldn't locate Nam Prik Pad made with shrimp for my recipe but, I did locate a version of it made with chilies, garlic, sugar, shallots and scallops. In my opinion the scallops add a much more pungent seafood taste for soup recipes like this one.  I like this version very much.

In some of the other countries where soup recipes like Tom Yum Goong are served the recipe itself can vary greatly from the original Thai recipes. So many times when a patron is at a restaurant other than a Thai restaurant and they see Tom Yum Goong listed in the soup recipes and they order it they can end up disappointed because it will be different from the Thai recipes. Let me just say this: It is quite easy to just go to an Asian market and buy pre-packaged stocks for Asian soup recipes like Tom Yum Goong but in my opinion these stocks and pastes just don't do any just to these great Thai soup recipes. I mean let's face it we are foodies and we strive to make soup recipes or any recipe we are working on as fresh as possible.
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Check Out This Great Nam Prik Pao!