|Vietnamese Buddhist Sour Soup|
During weekdays, I’ve been struggling to strike a balance between work and rest. Then I remembered a friend of mine saying a while back that she reserves Sundays for rest. No plans, no activities, just a day to take stock. She also begins the week by baking bread, one to share with friends and one for herself. So, today I did my own form of taking stock by making some home food.
This is a dish I fell in love with as a child in Texas. My parents and I used to frequent a vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant in Houston called Guanyin and they had the most delicious herb spiced tomato soup with pho noodles. I’ve tried many a time to recreate it in my own kitchen but something has always been missing. Yesterday, I went to Super 88 to pick up some Asian greens (I need my Asian greens) and stumbled upon a mysterious herb in the produce section called Ngo Om and on a hunch, bought a packet. Lo and behold, a quick search through google produced the recipe for this dish I’ve been craving since our big move from Texas. Apparently there was another missing ingredient as well: tamarind.
Here is the modified version of this recipe from the recipe book “Hot, Sour, Salty Sweet: a Culinary Journey through Southeast Asia” by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
Buddhist Sour Soup (cahn chua dau hou)
3 blocks tofu
1/4 cup of tamarind pulp, dissolve in 1 cup hot water
5 cup water
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 medium tomatoes, diced
soy sauce (to taste)
Garnish and Flavorings
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped shallots
2 garlic cloves, sliced
2 ro 3 cups bean sprouts, rinsed drained
12 leaves Asian basil, coarsely torn
6 sprigs rice paddy herb (ngo om)
2 to 3 bird or serrano chiles, minced
To make garnish, fry shallots and garlic cloves in vegetable oil with a bit of honey and salt. Fry until golden yellow. You may either use this as a garnish or directly place in soup.
To make soup, place the tamarind pulp and water into large pot to boil. Boil vigorously for 3 minutes, then add the sugar, salt, and tomato wedges. Bring back to boil and add tofu cubes and soy sauce and cook for 2 minutes. You may add the shallot and garlic garnish here if you wish. Taste adjust the balance of seasonings if you wish. Let the soup slowly boil so that the broth become a bright red and thick with tomato and tamarind pulp.
A few minutes before serving, place the ngo om herb in sprigs into the pot. Let the herb cook in the pot for about 5 or 6 minutes so its flavor seeps into the broth and then remove the sprigs from the pot and discard. Some people prefer serving them with the soup but because of its strong taste, I personally like the soup without the herb. Served the soup atop rice or rice noodles. Garnish it with basil, bean sprouts, fried shallots and minced pepper.
Serves 4-6 with rice or rice noodles.
