This week we are going back to the technique of boiling. I want to show you that in the olden days there were no metal pans that can be used for stir-frying but or for-fathers were cleaver enough to use their earthen pots to imitate the stir-frying techniques. The recipes today are Tom Som Pla Kra Bork (Sweet and sour soup with lots of ginger) and Larb Ok Ped (Warm duck breast salad done “Isan” North Eastern style)
     A few words should be written on the background history of each of these recipes.

   Tom Som: This is a soup that I have been eating since I was very young which is about 50 years ago. It is a very ancient recipe which is very unusual because it is rather sweet but does not smell fishy or sickly sweet due to the fact that lots of ginger is used. The soup has body and the broth itself has taste because shallots and Kapi (shrimp paste) are pound together into a paste and added to water to make the base of the soup. It is very refreshing and wonderfully fragrant.

Directions:
1. Cut fish into sliced and wash thoroughly, reserve for later use.
2. In a pestle and mortar, pound together shrimp paste, shallots, garlic, coriander roots and peppercorns into a coarse paste.
3. Put a pot on the stove add water and mix in the paste and bring the soup base to boil. Once boiling, add the fish pieces, cook until just done.
4. Season the soup with fish sauce, sugar and tamarind pulp juice. It should taste sweet and sour and slightly salty. It will also be very fragrant with the smell of shallots and peppercorns.
5. To finish this soup, add the julienne ginger and the green onion pieces. Serve piping hot as a soup course or eaten with rice with other dishes.

Tips:
a. Coriander roots are sometimes difficult to find abroad in regular super markets. You should be able to find it at Chinese grocery stores but if you can’t find it you can omit it from the recipe and add more shallots.
b. There are many recipes for the paste to make this soup, some only has shrimp paste, shallots and peppercorns. These three basic ingredients are sufficient to make the base of the soup.
c. Fresh ginger is very important in this soup you will need to use all of it if not lore because it is the scent of the ginger the specific characteristic of the Tom Som.
 

Directions:
1. In a saucepan, add water and bring it to boil on a stove.
2. Add the ground duck meat and stir to cook until just done. Do not over cook or duck meat will dry up and lose its flavor.
3. Once cooked take it off the stove and season the duck meat with ground dry chili peppers, fish sauce and lime juice. Taste it. It should be sour, spicy hot and salty.
4. Add the rest of the vegetables except mint leaves and mix well. To finish add the ground toasted rice kernels and some mint leaves. Spoon the salad from the sauce pan onto a plate and serve with lot of accompanying vegetable such as cabbage, leafy lettuce and long beans or cucumber.

Tips:
a. Larb can be made with all kinds of meat such as pork or chicken. You can even try to make Larb with raw salmon, just omit the cooking process and just dress you raw salmon with the ingredients indicated. This is like a Thai Isan steak tartar.
b. In the recipe it calls for vegetables “ as needed”. This really depends on you is you like your Larb to be quite fragrant with all the herbs or just the true taste of the duck meat!

                   Please enjoy trying to make these recipes and let me know how they come out at mcdangoffice@mcdang.com