Tamarind paste gives the sour element of this dish and whilst you will definitely notice its presence, it is not mouth-puckeringly sour in the way that biting on a slice of fresh lemon would be. I have been using tamarind paste a lot recently and love the depth of flavour it gives to those dishes in which it is used. I remember when I first became really interested in cookery and how difficult it used to be to source certain ingredients; I found it so frustrating! Thirty years ago you wouldn’t have had a hope of finding tamarind paste for sale in an Irish supermarket or shop and yet these days, ingredients like these can be found in many corner shops! For the enthusiastic and experimental cook, this is great.
As with all my recipes, I
encourage you to put your own stamp on the dish… always taste as you go along
and adjust seasoning, spicing etc. as necessary. I find it amazing that so many
people cook without tasting! It is the most important step when cooking. I
season using sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, but I also keep a lemon
on hand as I find a squirt of fresh lemon juice can often enliven any dish
without making it taste lemony… try it out… it really works!
This dish could be served as it is, almost like a substantial soup, but you could also serve it with rice as a light curry; it depends on how hungry you are feeling and what you are in the mood for. I like to serve it accompanied by flatbreads, which also serve as a vehicle to mop up all the yummy sauce!
This dish could be served as it is, almost like a substantial soup, but you could also serve it with rice as a light curry; it depends on how hungry you are feeling and what you are in the mood for. I like to serve it accompanied by flatbreads, which also serve as a vehicle to mop up all the yummy sauce!
I think it is perhaps
appropriate that I say a quick word about shrimp paste… this stuff looks
seriously unappealing and when you spoon it out of its jar/container, it
smells… well frankly… horrible! However, when mixed with the other ingredients
and fried off in the pan, it is transformed and creates the most wonderfully
complex base for the soup. So, don’t be put off by the shrimp paste in the
beginning despite any initial reservations which you may have!
Ingredients:
Paste base for the soup:3-4 thin red chillies, chopped
4-5 shallots, chopped
1 lemongrass stalk, outer
husk removed and chopped finely
25g fresh ginger, peeled
and chopped
1tsp shrimp paste
1tblsp vegetable oil
Soup:
1tblsp vegetable oil
2tblsp tamarind paste
1tblsp palm sugar (or
Demerara sugar)
1 litre of vegetable
stock
400g raw prawns, peeled
and deveined
150g fresh pineapple, cut
into small chunks
Salt & freshly ground
black pepper
To finish:
Some fine egg noodles,
cooked
1 lime cut into wedges
Some very thinly sliced
red chilli pepper
Fresh coriander leaves
Method:
Paste base:
1. Place all the ingredients
into the bowl of a food processor and pulse to create a paste. Alternatively
pound the ingredients together using a pestle and mortar.
Soup:
2. Heat the oil in a medium
sized, heavy based saucepan over a moderate heat and add the paste base for the
soup. Fry gently for 2-3 minutes until it deepens a little in colour, stirring
regularly so that it does not catch on the bottom of the pan.
3. Add the tamarind paste
and sugar and stir well and then add the vegetable stock. Increase the heat
under the saucepan and bring the mixture up to the boil. Then reduce the heat
and allow to simmer for 10- 15 minutes, uncovered.
4. Add the prawns and pineapple
and simmer for a further 5-7 minutes until the prawns are just cooked.
5. Serve in bowls with
noodles and wedge of lemon and a little of the sliced chilli and fresh
coriander scattered over the top.
Serves 4-6.
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