Tom Yum Soup with Shrimp

Ingredients

• ¾ lb Shrimp
• 2 cups Mushroom, halved
• 5 cups stock
• 2 lemongrass stalks, bruised and cut in lengths
• 4 slices galangal or ginger
• 4 lime leaves (or zest of 1 lime)
• 3 tbsp fish sauce + juice of 2 limes
• 2 tbsp Thai chili paste (nam prik pao) or 1 tbsp sriracha + 1 tsp sugar
• Cilantro + chilies

Method

1. Simmer the lemongrass, galangal, and lime leaves in the stock 8 minutes — the aromatics perfume the broth but stay in the bowl uneaten, Thai-style furniture.
2. Stir in the chili paste until the broth blushes orange.
3. Add the Mushroom for 2 minutes, then the Shrimp until just cooked — shrimp: pink and curled, 2 minutes.
4. OFF the heat, add the fish sauce and lime juice — acid added off-boil stays bright instead of turning flat.
5. Taste and tune: it should hit sour first, then heat, then salt, in that order. Cilantro over the top. The soup that recalibrates what soup can do.