Canh Chua Tom (Vietnamese Sour Shrimp Soup)

Sometimes I get a craving for canh chua ca (Vietnamese sour fish soup), but I don't want to actually eat the fish, I just want the sour flavor.

And the bac ha (taro stem). Although bac ha may resemble elephant ears, make sure you've got the alocasia odora variety or else you'll have a very allergic reaction. I just love how the spongy stalks soak up all the flavors. My cousin, however, eats it for the pineapples. I tossed in half a fresh pineapple in this pot and she still wanted more.

The sourness in the soup is achieved by tamarind. I was lazy and used tamarind soup powder but after looking at the ingredients, which included several unpronounceable words, I think I'm going to stick to real tamarind pulp instead. As I said before, make this with whatever vegetables you wish, but for me no canh chua is complete without bac ha, fresh pineapples, and okra.

This time around, I cut a few sprigs of ngo om (Vietnamese rice paddy herb) from my youngest uncle's garden. The ngo om has a fresh cumin-like fragrance that really enhances the soup.


Canh Chua Tom (Vietnamese Sour Shrimp Soup)

For a 5-quart stock pot, you'll need:

As much shrimp as you'd like, peeled and deveined
2-3 stalks of bac ha, or celery if you can't find it, peeled and sliced on the diagonal
2 tomatoes, chunked
1 to 2 cups fresh pineapple chunks
1 cups bean sprouts
A dozen or so okra pods, sliced in 1-inch segments
2 stalks lemongrass, bruised and cut diagonally into about 3-inch segments or big enough to make them easy to remove from the soup pot
1 shallot, minced
2 or more cloves garlic, minced
A few sprigs ngo om or rau ram (Vietnamese coriander)
2 tblsp tamarind (I buy seedless tamarind in blocks. They also sell it in paste or liquid concentrated form. Adjust amounts if necessary.)
fish sauce, to taste

Add a few drizzles of oil to your pot and saute shallot, garlic, tamarind, and lemongrass until fragrant. Then, leaving the ingredients in the pot, fill your stock pot 3/4-full with water and toss in the shrimp shells. Bring to a boil, turn heat down to medium to simmer for about 15 minutes to create a shrimp stock. Scoop out any excess foam. Remove shrimp shells.

You can either remove the lemongrass stalks at this point if you don't want to have to do that while you're eating. I like to leave them in so they can flavor the soup even more. Leaving the lemongrass in big sections makes it easier to find and to remove from the soup later. Add tomatoes, pineapple, bac ha, and okra and let simmer. Add fish sauce to taste.

After maybe 10 minutes, when the veggies have slightly softened, add the shrimp. Taste soup again and add fish sauce or more tamarind if needed. Add bean sprouts and ngo om or rau ram when the soup is almost done since they cook almost immediately.

Ladle into a big soup bowl to serve. Spoon over rice.

Enjoy!

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1 year ago today, Asian pear and prickly pear cactus gelato at Gelateria Naia - Berkeley.