Cooking Lesson #2 - White Tom Yum Soup - Seafood

Saturday afternoons are turning out to be great times for cooking lessons. My husband is at work and my cooking teacher and her assistant finish their regular job at 1:15 which leaves us just enough time to shop for ingredients and make a Saturday night feast before they need to head back to their village to join their families.

Today I wanted to learn to make Tom Yum Soup - a spicy favorite of both my husband and me. I also wanted to make it with seafood- shrimp, squid, and crab - to be specific, because that seafood is plentiful here and I needed to learn how to clean a squid. Although Tom Yum Soup is a Thai dish, it is quite popular here in Malaysia. It's a nice, spicy bowl of delicious flavors.

Our first stop was the grocery store. Last cooking lesson, my teacher brought all the ingredients but today wanted to help with the shopping because many of the ingredients have English titles next to the UPC codes which helps me identify some of the ingredients.

Here are the foods that were new to me today:

Lemon tree leaves - We removed the stems and the spines of the leaves and used them for flavoring.

Lemon grass - We smashed the hard stalks with the flat edge of a meat cleaver and then sliced into 2" lengths.

Fish Balls - I don't know what these are but they are located with the fresh noodles and tofu. We washed the balls and added them to the soup.

Big, flat mushrooms - I just tried to Google them to get a name and they were kind of like a Chanterelle or a large Oyster mushroom but not exactly like either.

Baby Corn - We sliced the corn in half lengthwise and then sliced the halves diagonally including the bits of stalk.


Here's the cooking technique that was new to me... cleaning a squid.

First Rin pulled the head off. Then she pulled the black ink pouch from inside the head and discarded it. She cut off the eyeballs and snipped the head in half. She snipped the body into 1/2" wide rings. The she washed all the pieces really well.


Here are the added benefits to Saturday afternoon cooking lessons:
My house smells great. Dinner is ready. The dishes are done. I have time to blog. Life is good....

Here's the recipe

Seafood White Tom Yum Soup (By Rin)

1 packet of White Tom Yam Soup Mix

2-4 TBSP of evaporated skim milk

3 stalks of celery plus the heart - sliced

1 bunch cilantro (celery parsley) - chopped

5 or 6 lemon tree leaves - spines and stems removed

8-10 small/hot chilies - stems removed and sliced open lengthwise

2 stalks of lemon grass - smashed with a cleaver and sliced into 2" lengths

1 lemon - quartered

1 yellow onion - sliced

big flat mushrooms, torn in half or thirds

1 carrot sliced into 1/4" x 1" pieces

1/4 cauliflower - broken into small flowers

2 tomatoes - quartered

5 baby corns wit partial stalks at the bottom - slice in half and then into diagonal pieces

Assorted fish balls

Choice of seafood  ( I used shrimp, crab, and squid)

1. Prepare the seafood. Cut the tails and eyeballs off the shrimp. Pull off the heads from the squid and remove the ink packets. Cut the head in half. Cut the body into 1/2' rings. Pull the legs off the crab and cut the bodies in half. Walk all the seafood very well. Set aside.

2. Wash the fish balls. Set aside.

3. Fill a large soup pot about 3/4 full. Bring to a boil.

4. All the lemon grass. Boil for several minutes.

5. Add the crab, cauliflower, carrots, lemon tree leaves, baby corns, tomatoes, chilies, Tom Yam Soup mix, fish balls.

7. Squeeze in several quarters of lemon juice.

8. Boil the above mixture for several minutes.

9. Add mushrooms, squid and shrimp.

10. Add evaporated skim milk 1 tbsp at a time and mix in well.

12. Add onions and celery.

13. Let soup mixture cook for 10 minutes

14. Finish with cilantro on top.