Domestic Goddess - Tom Yum

I don't cook usually - usually I am fortunate enough to have the Mom preparing my home-cooked meals, or I dine out. But when I do, simple dishes such as omelets, pasta, pizzas (baking), cookies (baking), soup noodles (not necessarily instant noodles), soup, curry and Bak Kut Teh aren't really difficult tasks to tackle once in a while. I just need to be prepared to get my hands dirty.

Today, I decided to try my hands on cooking Tom Yum soup - traditionally or better known as the "Thai Spicy Prawn Soup" - spicy with tinge of sour overture. I usually don't see the need to write or even take photographs of homecooked dishes, so this entry is specially written in honor of / for a newfound carefree friend who has too much faith in my culinary abilities and is curious to know the verdict  :)

Having purchased and prepared the necessary ingredients for this simple dish, I lay them all out (note that I am not a neat person by nature, hence the saying about diners not seeing the kitchen is very sound advice!) - tomyum paste, chilli padi, tomatoes, chicken and fish instead of seafood (the Mom is allergic to seafood), button mushrooms and fresh limes in lieu of lime juice.

Similarly to cooking curry, the frying pan is pre-heated and I stir fry the chicken together with the paste first. I was not supposed to add chilli padi first, but wanting the meat to absorb more of this spicy taste, I decided to toss the chilli padi into the pan together to stir-fry everything together. This took about 15 - 20 minutes, merely for the paste to fill the kitchen with its steamy aroma and the chicken to be cooked.

The button mushrooms and fresh tomatoes are being cut up in the meantime, while I was stir-frying the chicken and Tom Yum paste. At this juncture I kept debating if I should add more mushrooms or tomatoes. I also halved the two limes and squeezed out the juice for later.

Now this is where I slowly poured in water for the soup. The packaging stated 3 cups for 5-6 persons' servings, but I only cooked half the packet of paste (I only had three samplers including myself), so I poured 1 and half cups of water into this. Upon tasting, it was too spicy - I am someone who can take chilli padi, and even I thought the soup was too tangy. So I added another half cup of water slowly.

The finished product with chicken drumlets, garnished with some vegetables for the color. Ok, admittedly, I had forgotten about the peppermint leaves for garnishing, which would add a fresh tinge of minty fragrance to the dish.

After cooking the chicken, I contonued on with fish Tom Yum. The ingredients and method of cooking were the same.

VERDICT:-
While the Mom and the Beau had no issue with the meat - after all, both the chicken and fish were fresh and tender, being not overly cooked or frozen - they thought the soup a tad greasy. I deduce that is due to the Ikan brand of Tom Yum paste I purchased, since I did not add any oil while doing the stir-frying at initial stage.

The soup base for my Chicken Tom Yum was more bland, especially when eaten together with the brown rice. The soup base for my Fish Tom Yum was thicker, hence it was more spicy. The level of sour-ness was, according to them, "just nice" - a  balanced level of sour taste that did not seek to compete with the spiciness on which should be more sapid.

Overall, I thought it was a pretty good attempt, with room for improvement on level of spiciness, grease control and do not forget the peppermint leaves for garnishing!