Thai home cooking with Maew (part 2)
Thai Southern style hot & sour soup
Ingredients
To make chili paste:
- 10 dried chili pepper
- 10 fresh chili pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp chopped shallots
- 5-6 garlic cloves
- 1-2 inches piece fresh turmeric root
- 2 tsp shrimp paste
To make soup:
- 100-150 grams chili paste
- 1 blue crab
- 6-10 shrimps (medium-size, peeled)
- 300 grams mixed vegetables
- 2 cups water
- 1-2 tbsp palm sugar
- 2-3 tbsp fish sauce
- 2-3 tbsp tamarind paste
- 3-4 tbsp lime juice
Method
- Pound all chili paste ingredients in mortar with pestle until smooth (or use food blender).
- Remove and discard crab apron, rinse until clean.
- Remove crab carapace (keep for cooking later), cut crab vertically.
- In pot, bring water to boil, add chili paste, cook until it dissolves.
- Add crab, fish sauce, tamarind paste and palm sugar.
- Add mixed vegetables and shrimps, cook for 3 minutes then turn off heat.
- Add lime juice before serving.
Thai Pumpkin Custard
Ingredients
- 3 small pumpkins
- 4 duck eggs
- 1/2 cup palm sugar
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 7-8 pandan leaves
Method
- Pierce stem of pumpkin (as pictures above), scoop seeds out and discard, let pumpkin dry inside (about 20 minutes).
- Beat duck eggs and mix with all ingredients.
- Mix with hands until palm sugar melts.
- Strain mixture using fine mesh strainer or cheese cloth.
- Pour mixture inside pumpkins.
- Cover each pumpkin with its stem, steam in high heat until cooked (about 1 hour).
- Keep in refrigerator. Serve cold.
