Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Soup (Canh Chua Tom)

Posted by Sia Ea on Nov 30, 2008 in Recipes | 0 comments

One of my favorite soups is a Vietnamese sweet and sour soup. Its a delicious blend of tart, slightly sweet, fishy, and spicy flavors. My mother’s recipe is slightly different from the common Vietnamese recipe for this soup. Most recipes call for bean sprouts and okra, which we do not use in this soup. This soup is very easy to make. Often, I just have it over rice and am completely satisfied.

Servings: A family of 5
Great as leftovers with rice the next day.

Ingredients

  • 1lb Fresh Prawns or Jumbo Shrimp (peeled and deveined)
  • 1 chicken drumstick or chicken thigh
  • 3 tomatoes. 2 unripe. 1 ripened. (cut into medium-sized chunks)
  • 1 small can of pineapple chunks in syrup
  • 6 stalks of Thai basil
  • 1 winter melon
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • vegetable oil
  • fish sauce
  • 1-2 chilis, finely chopped

Directions

  1. Bring 10 cups of water to boil in a medium sized pot.
  2. Peel off the skin of the winter melon and slice it into rings (about 1/4 inch thick)
  3. Add the melon slices and chicken thigh or drumstick to the water and bring the fire to medium low. Cover the pot.
  4. Peel, devein, and rinse the shrimp. Set aside in refrigerator.
  5. Pick off the leaves of the Thai basil, rinse, and set aside.
  6. Slice tomatoes into medium sized chunks.
  7. Place a small saucepan on the burner and set the heat to medium.
  8. Add minced garlic to saucepan. Stir until brown. Turn off heat. Set aside.
  9. Remove chicken from water and set aside to cool.
  10. When cooled, shred the chicken and set aside. It’s ok if the chicken isn’t completely cooked. It will cook when put back into the soup.
  11. The melon is cooked when it turns a slightly more translucent shade.
  12. Add 5 dashes of fish sauce and tomatoes to broth. Leave for 5 minutes.
  13. Add pineapple chunks with syrup and chicken to broth. Leave for 5 minutes.
  14. Add prawns, basil, chilis, 3 tablespoons of tamarind base to broth.
  15. When chicken and prawns are completely cooked, taste the broth. Ensure that it is salty and sour enough. If either is lacking, add fish sauce or tamarind soup base to taste.
  16. Garnish the soup with a teaspoon of fried garlic oil
  17. Serve with Thai jasmine rice.

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