Ingredients
- lb fish bones
- cup swater
- big head sshallots (or4 small ones)
- cilantro roots or6 cilantro stems
- clove sgarlic, smashed
- inch section peeled daikon radish, optional
- stalk slemongrass, smashed, separate top half and bottom half
- pc gal angal
- Kaffir lime leaves
- Dried chilies, to taste, placed under the broiler for 30 seconds to 1 minute to char slightly
- Tbsp fish sauce
- tsp sugar
- goyster or straw mushrooms
- roma tomatoes
- gfish meat of your choice, cut into big chunks
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 1/2 tsp salt to taste
- Jasmine rice (or jasmine brown rice!) for serving
Instructions
- (Before you begin, take the soup pot you're going to use and add 4 cups of water into it.
- Take a mental note of what 4 cups of water looks like in this pot, i.e. how deep it is, it'll come in handy later.) Make fish stock: In a pot, add fish bones, water, shallots, cilantro roots, garlic, lemongrass tops, and daikon.
- Break apart some of the chilies to release the seeds, the more you break the spicier the soup will be, and add to the pot.
- Simmer on low heat for 45 minutes, skimming off any foam that floats to the top.
- Once finished, remove fish bones, cilantro roots, daikon, and lemongrass tops and anything else you don't want in the final soup.
- I like to leave the shallots, garlic and chilies in the soup, but you don't have to.
- Safety Note: If your fish bones are small or they have fallen apart in the pot, I highly recommend straining out the soup to make sure there are no bones left in the pot!
- At this point you should have roughly 4 cups of fish stock (remember that mental note?).
- If you let it go a little long and it has reduced a bit too much, you can add water to makeup the shortfall.
- If you have too much, not to worry, you just may need to add a bit more seasoning, that's all.
- Make the tom yum: Bring the fish stock to a boil, then add lemongrass bottoms, galangal, torn kaffir lime leaves and simmer for 4 5 minutes.
- Note: the herbs are not meant to be eaten; they are used to infuse flavour into the soup only, so make sure you tell your guests not to eat them, or remove them altogether.
- What I like to do is remove some of them to make it easier to eat (less stuff to navigate around) but I leave some in there for garnish.
- Add fish sauce, sugar, mushroom, tomato, then the fish meat.
- Simmer until fish is fully cooked; 1 2 minutes depending on the size of your fish.
- Once the fish is fully cooked, add lime juice, then taste and more salt as needed.
- Top with chopped cilantro and serve!
- My mom loves to put rice in the soup bowl and eat is as a complete meal in one bowl.
- Whole grain rice such as jasmine brown rice, red rice, or black rice works particularly well in soups.
- Enjoy!
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