Gaeng Som Gung - Sour and Sweet Shrimp Soup

Gaeng means Soup and Som means Sour :)

Gaeng Som is a popular healthy sour and sweet soup that is quite common in Thailand, where it is usually prepared using a shrimps or freshwater fish (Snake-head fish). Normally I always made hom-made curry paste but it’s easy for you to buy a canned one!

Ingredients

- Fresh shrimps or about one and a half pounds of fish fillets or fillet of pork.

- 4 cups of stock or just water.
- 2-3 tablespoons sour curry paste (Mixture of Dried shrimps, Fresh and dries Chilli, Shrimp paste, Shallots and Galingales )

- 1/4 cup fish sauce1 tablespoon tamarind concentrate mixed with 3 tablespoons water.
- Lime juice (to taste)
-1-2 tablespoons Palm Sugar to taste.

- 2 cups of very coarsely chopped vegetables of your choice eg. Long bean, Cabbage, Baby Corns, Raw Papaya, Vegetable Humming bird, Green Cabbages….and here I added Carrots for more vitamin! LOL OR add only a kind of your fave veggie.

Method

- If you are using Shrimps, clean and peeled or if you used fresh fish then dehead, detail, and cut your fish and fillet it to produce four fillets of fish. I myself always used shrimps and sometimes changed to fillet of pork ‘coz I don’t like the touched of boiled fish. If I used fish, I deep-fried it before add to the soup.

- Heat the stock until boil and add all the curry paste.

- Add Fish sauce, tamarind concentrate, Coconut Palm sugar and Lime Juice. Made it a bit strong taste ‘coz it will be reduced when add veggies.
- Add veggies and bring to boil then add shrimps and simmer until it cooked through. Served hot with Thai fragrance rice. Thai omelette or Preserved salted eggs or Crisy friend any salted fishes is always a great side dish!!

This dish can be eaten as a soup course, but in Thailand soups are normally eaten with the other dishes of the lunch and dinner, rather than before them.

Tips : To add Lime juice is to give great taste.