sour mixed vegetable soup with peanuts sayur asam

      When I first tried this popular West Javanese soup, I was intrigued by the spray of red-skinned oval nuts and leaves floating in it. As I've subsequently learned, melinjo nuts, and leaves are hard to find outside of Indonesia, but even without these, this mixture of vegetables and peanuts in sour broth tastes really great. D o try, however, to find fresh or dried salam leaves, which really make a difference to the flavor.

      ¼ cup (40 g) raw peanuts

      ½ teaspoon dried shrimp paste, toasted

      6 shallots, thinly sliced

      1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

      1 large red chili, seeded and sliced

      4 thick slices galangal, bruised

      2 fresh or dried salam leaves

      4 cups (1 liter) light chicken or beef stock

      7 oz (200 g) minced cabbage

      1 small zucchini or chayote (choko), peeled and diced

      3½ oz (100 g) green beans, cut in short lengths

      2-3 tablespoons tamarind pulp, soaked in ½ cup warm water, squeezed and strained to obtain juice

      minced palm or soft brown sugar to taste salt to taste

      Put the peanuts in a small saucepan with water to cover. Bring to the boil, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

      Put the shrimp paste into a saucepan with the shallots, garlic, chili, galangal, salam leaves, and stock. Bring to the boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Add the peanuts and vegetables and return to the boil. Lower the heat, cover, and simmer until vegetables are cooked, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the tamarind juice and simmer for about 1 minute. Add sugar and salt to taste; if you prefer a really sour soup, sugar will not be necessary. Remove galangal and salam leaves, then transfer to a serving bowl and serve with steamed rice; this is particularly good with grilled fish or poultry.

      Serves: 4 Preparation time: 10 min Cooking time: 20 min

      chicken & coconut milk soup gaeng tom kha gai

      In Thailand, this wonderfully creamy soup is often served in an unglazed terracotta pot with a curved bottom, placed on a charcoal brazier to keep it warm throughout the meal. The galangal, lemon grass, and kaffir lime leaves give a heavenly fragrance, and as there are only a few bruised chilies, the flavor is fairly mild. Serve with rice and Simple Thai Fish Sauce & Chili Dip, which lets you intensify the heat as much as you like.

      5 cups (1.25 ml) thin coconut milk

      2 in (5 cm) galangal, bruised and thickly sliced

      4 stems lemon grass, bottom 7 in (18 cm) only, bruised and cut in 4-5 pieces

      1½ lb (750 g) chicken pieces, cut through the bone into bite-sized pieces, or I lb (500 g) boneless breast or thigh fillet

      ½ cup (125 ml) thick coconut milk

      ¼ cup (60 ml) lime juice

      ¼ cup (60 ml) fish sauce

      4-5 kaffir lime leaves, torn

      4-6 red or green bird's-eye chilies, bruised

      sprigs of coriander leaf

      Simple Thai Fish Sauce & Chili Dip (page 175)

      Put the thin coconut milk, galangal, and lemon grass into a saucepan and bring slowly to the boil, stirring frequently. Simmer gently with the pan uncovered for 5 minutes, then add the chicken and simmer gently, uncovered, until the chicken is tender.

      Add the thick coconut milk, lime juice, fish sauce, lime leaves and chilies and bring almost to the boil, stirring. Transfer to a large bowl and garnish with coriander. Serve with the Simple Thai Fish Sauce & Chili Dip in separate bowls and allow everyone to add according to taste.

      Serves: 4 Preparation time: 10 min Cooking time: 20 min

      chicken soup with lime, chilies & basil s'ngao muon

      If you're looking for a tangy soup as a foil to rich food (such as seafood or meat cooked in coconut milk, or fried fish or meat), this clear chicken soup is just the thing. It has lots of lime juice and Asian basil, with a few hot chilies for extra zing. You can make it in advance, and re-heat just before serving. (Incidentally, I find it intriguing that the name for this type of sour Cambodian soup, S'ngao, is almost the same as the Filipino equivalent, which is called Sinigang.)

      1 lb (500 g) chicken pieces (breast and thigh), skinned but left whole wit h the bones still intact

      6 cups (1.5 liters) water

      2 stems lemon grass, botto m 7 in (18 cm), bruised and cut in 3-4 pieces

      2 cloves garlic, smashed and minced

      2-4 red or green bird's-eye chilies, bruised

      2 teaspoons sugar

      2 tablespoons fish sauce

      salt to taste

      3-4 tablespoons lime juice

      ½ cup loosely packed Asian basil leaves, coarsely chopped

      Put the chicken, water, lemon grass, garlic, chilies, and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Partially cover the pan and simmer for 5 minutes, removing any scum that rises to the surface. Cover the pan completely and simmer gently until the chicken is cooked, 25 to 30 minutes.

      When the chicken is cooked, leave it in the stock until cool enough to handle (if you're in a hurry, you can remove it from the stock to cool). Remove the lemon grass pieces from the stock and discard. Shred the chicken meat, then return it to the stock. If you're preparing the soup well in advance, cool, then refrigerate the soup until required.

      Shortly before serving, heat the soup, add the fish sauce, salt, and lime

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